Airport well equipped to deal with bombs

DIVISIONAL Fire Officer (DFO) Raymond Cooseelal in charge of the Piarco International Airport fire station has sought to dispel rumours that the station is not equipped to deal with issues of fire and bombs exploding at the airport in view of what happened on Thursday evening.

“Not only do we have the equipment and are well equipped to deal with such a crisis, we have 16 officers attached to us who were recently trained in defusing bombs in Louisiana, USA. “While we are fifth down in the order of protocol with the duty manager, the Piarco Police, the Airport Security and the Air Traffic Control Tower in that order being the first line of defence and priority against a bomb attack or any such crisis in the airport, we are here for safety and are well equipped to deal with it. “We have all that is necessary for safety at a Category Nine airport like foam, ladders, 4000 litres of water and manpower.”

The DFO made these comments to Newsday yesterday following a two-hour shut down of the Piarco International Airport on Thursday evening after three bomb threats were called in. According to reports, between 3.30 pm and 8 pm, airport officials began receiving threats that bombs were placed in the Caribbean Star and Liat Terminals and the main airport terminal. The caller said the bombs would go off at 7.30 pm. Between 6 pm and 8 pm, the airport was shut down, stopping all incoming and outgoing flights and traffic while the fire services, together with officers of the Police Service, the Army and Airports Authority made a fruitless “sweep and search” of the terminals. Cooseelal noted,“this is not the first time we have had bomb scares at the airport. over the last ten years we have had several at the old south terminal, this is the first for this terminal since it was opened and the first that was given such public notice. “And in all the cases we were fully prepared. “We have persons trained not only in the USA but in England and have trained officers in bomb detecting and defusing techniques from neighbouring St Kitts and Montserrat.”

In ending, the DFO reiterated that his department was not about security but about safety. Security, he added, is in the hands of the airport operations manager Eric Pierre. Efforts to contact Pierre were futile as Newsday learnt that key airport personnel,  including  police divisional head Snr Supt Michael Thomas, were in various all day meetings dealing with the bomb threat drama. However, Newsday learnt that while operations were smooth and running, a hyped up security will be in operation for the next two days which was evident during the return of Prime Minister Patrick Manning last night from his Caricom Heads of Government Summit in Castries, St Lucia. Airport sources, while confirming they are in the process of tracing the three calls made to the airport by the hoaxer, claim they believe the call came from a TSTT employee aimed at airport Board chairman Linus Rogers, an employee of the public utility. TSTT is currently locked in wage negotiations with the Communi-cations Workers Union.