‘My Old Year’s Night date with BWIA and Caribbean Airlines.’

Notwithstanding the VSEP lawsuit filed by a former BWIA manager to prevent the airline from disposing of some of its assets, BWIA’s crash-free run, spanning 66 years, came to a close on the Port-of-Spain to Paramaribo (Suriname) route in the early hours of January 1, 2007.

To get me to do this assignment, Editor-in-Chief Suzanne Mills dangled the possibilities of a whirlwind stopover in London, a moonlit walk on a Barbados beach, or even a shoppers’ paradise trip to New York. And then she “jam meh” with Suriname.

Not knowing much about Suriname was not my biggest fear. Drop me in the middle of anywhere, anytime, and I will make the most of it. However, given the shaky transition from one airline to another, overnight in a country I knew little about, I had visions of myself in a conversation with Dutch speaking airport officials saying, “We don’t know anything about any Caribbean Airlines return flight to Trinidad,” and “No, you can’t sleep here.”

I was prepared to handcuff myself to the plane.

The last sunset of the year found me driving north along the highway from little Maegan Khan’s birthday party in South Trinidad to Piarco International Airport, on my way for a date with destiny, better known as BW flight 883.

On arrival at Piarco at about 8.15 pm, the General Aviation Services (GAS) staff at the counter, which had replaced BWIA staff, was pleasant, and was placing new Caribbean Airlines signs displaying Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warnings of the dangers of carrying loaded firearms aboard an aircraft, or leaving luggage unattended.

I ran into an early problem, however, when GAS counter staff Chanelle Mosodeen and Vanessa Bhaggan informed me that BW883, using a Boeing 737-800, was “on time” and would depart for Paramaribo at 12.15 am on January 1, 2007. I showed them my ticket and itinerary which listed a 10.40 pm departure time, on December 31, 2006. They could not explain how “the wrong information” ended up on my ticket, and could not say if my flight was BWIA or Caribbean Airlines. I would have to ask BWIA staff, they said, but there was none “available” at the time.

Did the last international flight in BWIA’s history just become the first flight in Caribbean Airlines’ history via delay? No one at the airport could say for sure, but one GAS counter attendant said she believed that a couple of flights had already left under the Caribbean Airlines name. However, she could not say exactly which flights those were.

My search for a cup of coffee and foreign exchange began, as I did not know if the “delay” would affect my ability to board BW884 in Paramaribo, to get back to Trinidad. All of the various departure screens throughout Piarco noted that flights to St Lucia, New York via Barbados, London, Georgetown, two to Tobago, and BW883 to Paramaribo, were all “on time.”

After converting all of my money to US dollars at First Citizens Bank, I walked through the airport looking for official signs of the end of an era, and noticed a local television news team taking footage and interviewing pilots.

That was all I could find so I started looking for a cup of coffee at about 9.45 pm and could not find one at any of the food outlets throughout the airport. This may not seem important, but I had to keep my wits about me all night to cover the alleged BWIA/Caribbean Airlines overnight transition, and I was in danger of a midnight “crash” without a hot cup.

I headed back to the Caribbean Airlines counter area, where GAS’s Narissa Cherrington informed me that BW883 had indeed been delayed to 12.15 am, and I was not dreaming.

So BWIA had ended — or Caribbean Airlines had started — on a familiar note.

I took a chance and asked her for a cup of coffee, and she politely referred me to GAS’s Jason Andrews, who, in five minutes flat, produced a scorching hot cup of black coffee, with sugar.

To him, I am forever grateful.

Rejuvenated, I headed to Gate six at 11.15 pm with my boarding pass. Having cleared security with about 40 other passengers, I sat at Gate six and waited until about 11.45 pm, when GAS staff member Crystal Williams arrived on the scene and told us we would be required to proceed to Gate 13.

No, I’m not making this up.

We passed back through the security system for Gates one-seven, and then through a new security area for Gates eight-16, both times causing a chorus of electronic chirping protests from the security devices.

At Gate 13, I overheard a member of the flight crew ask GAS staff if all passengers had been through security.

Finally, at exactly 12.01 am on January 1, 2007, I was the first passenger to step on to the aircraft and BW883 was in the air at 12.32 am, bound for Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport in Suriname. A flight attendant walked by with a stack of Newsday’s which she distributed to travellers, and I felt at home at once.

Captain Ravindranath Singh officially bade farewell to BWIA and welcomed passengers on board Caribbean Airlines before forecasting a flying time of about one hour and 20 minutes at 37,000 feet.

He said there was a possibility of clear air turbulence, and we should all remain seated.

In-flight entertainment was a feature called Caribbean Essence which began with a speech from BWIA CEO Peter Davies and featured information on Cricket World Cup 2007, and tourism in the region.

Flight attendant Cheryl Permento announced that the airline word be honouring all Club Bwee and Frequent Flyer schemes, and a beverage would be made available to us.

On arrival in Paramaribo, Surinamese immigration officials became slightly confused when I told them I just wanted to go to the departure lounge to get the return flight to Trinidad.

Immigration agent “Rodney” tried to explain to me that as a Caricom national, I could stay for as long as six months if I wanted. I promised to return sometime in the future.

I began to panic, however, when he suggested that, due to a fog problem, BW884 may actually be forced to depart early.

With assistance from “Jasmine” at Johan Adolf Pengel, I was through Immigration, given a boarding pass, properly screened at security and ushered on to a bus which took myself and about 60 other passengers to the aircraft on the tarmac, in less than 35 minutes.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I reclaimed my old seat, 9A, and by then, when flight attendant’s noticed I was on the return flight, the cat was out of the bag.

I told flight attendant Avion Hernandez that Newsday was on hand for the historic occasion.

One last thing... Captain Singh was forced to halt his first take-off attempt due to what he called “an aborted take-off due to false indications.”

No, I’m not making this up. So he turned the aircraft around, and the incident-free flight landed at Piarco at 5.15 am.