Prime Minister and Minister for National Security, Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell, has commended the prompt action by airport and emergency response teams to the airplane incident on Wednesday.
A New York-bound Jet Blue flight, with 77 passengers on board, was forced to return to the Maurice Bishop International Airport shortly after take-off on Wednesday due to failure in one of its engines.
Based on the full-scale emergency radioed in by the pilot, the airport’s emergency protocol was activated and the relevant units mobilised and dispatched. All units were in place by the time the plane returned for the emergency landing.
Once notified, the Royal Grenada Police Force also initiated a full-scale response, dispatching officers from the Coast Guard, Special Services Unit and Traffic among others, to address any eventuality. Incident commanders were also dispatched as part of this major incident response protocol.
When debriefed on the incident, Dr. Mitchell expressed satisfaction with the response mechanisms utilised by both the Airport Authority and the RGPF.
He said, “It is heartening to note that the emergency response protocols were deployed as they should. From all reports, the response was timely and well-coordinated and for that, the staff at the airport, police officers and other emergency response personnel must be highly commended.”
Dr. Mitchell added, “While we are thankful that the incident did not escalate into one which required the actual use of the deployed emergency response resources, I am confident that that the response mounted illustrates our readiness to deal with any eventuality. I therefore commend all involved for a job well done.”
General Manager of the Airports Authority, Ms. Wendy Williams and Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. Edvin Martin have echoed the sentiments of the Prime Minister and have commended their respective personnel for the excellent response to the incident.
