HEROES OF FORCED LANDING

Monday’s emergency landing at Piarco International Airport by one of the five Dash 8 300 aircraft, Flight 534, operated by Tobago Express on the Piarco-Crown Point Airport route could have been far worse but for the skilful handling of the plane and the situation by pilot, Daniel Kawal. Immediately Kawal detected the problem, that of a malfunctioning nose landing gear, signalled by the nose gear safe landing light not coming on, he circled Crown Point Airport and sought to redeploy the landing gear. When this failed, attempts were made to operate the gear manually, but in vain. Captain Kawal after circling Crown Point several times, took the decision to return to Piarco where there are better facilities for the handling of an emergency.

Kawal exercised mature judgment, not only in deciding to fly back to Piarco, but in the manner in which he and other crew members, relayed the crucial information to the passengers. Kawal and crew understood that although there would be an emergency landing which would have been physically rough on the passengers, there was the pressing requirement to cater to their emotional needs as the thought of a forced landing could have had an adverse psychological impact on many, if not all, of the passengers, particularly the less young.

Well trained in the handling of contingencies, the professional overseeing of the entire exercise by Kawal, the other pilot, Barry Sadeek, and other crew members, all of them heroes of the forced landing for the manner in which they conducted the emergency operation, had been critical as at least three of the passengers turned out to be hypertensive. Nonetheless, the incident which left the passengers understandably traumatised was a reminder to all that the possibility of mechanical error, though statistically small, was a factor in all airline operations. But while the grounding of the Tobago Express Dash 8 300 fleet by the Civil Aviation Authority was standard procedure and should not be viewed as a reflection on the integrity of the fleet there are questions that need to be asked.

We do not question the competence of the mechanics, who handled Flight 534, yet we are constrained to ask why was it that mere minutes after take off on the relatively short flight from Piarco to Crown Point it was detected that the aircraft’s nose gear landing was not working, pointing to a malfunctioning gear? What is the likelihood, statistically, of this recurring? While we regret the incident, had it occurred a little over a fortnight ago at the heignt of the heavily trafficked Easter season, any closure of Piarco International Airport as happened on Monday would have been troublesome. Hopefully, the investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority, particularly with respect to the rest of the grounded Tobago Express fleet will be handled expeditiously so that the suspension of their flights can be lifted early and operations resume as quickly as possible.