BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEWS coming out from Antigua indicates that there are conflicting reports concerning atmospheric conditions at the time when the Montserrat-bound aircraft crashed at the VC Bird International Airport killing three people on Sunday (Oct. 7).
According to the Antigua Observer Media Group, local meteorological chiefs had revealed concerns that the weather on Sunday was not ideal and that alarm bells rang moments after the tragic incident, regarding “whether atmospheric conditions were a contributing factor in the horrific smash”.
The media house noted that despite the island-wide thunderstorms and lightning experienced on Sunday, the Chief Executive Officer of the Antigua & Barbuda Airport Authority, Stanley Smith, told a news conference on that night that the weather was good at the time of the incident.
The Antigua Observer Media Group quoted Smith as saying, “From the report we are actually getting from the airport control tower the weather control was good.”
It however noted that Met Services Director Keithly Meade said an upper level trough was lingering in the area for quite some time, which created unstable conditions on the island.
Additionally, the media group said Meade noted that the instability had caused developing thunderstorms and lightning around 2:00 p.m. which continued until shortly before 4:00 p.m. – mere moments before the incident.
“The conditions were something to be a bit careful about. Looking at the radar from home I could see quite a bit of build up in the Coolidge area with some heavy thunderstorms. That activity was moving south towards the Carlisle area,” Meade said.
Meade also said that as the weather system continued later into the afternoon, information was conveyed to air traffic controllers on an hourly basis, but he however noted that even though the information was passed on, the final decision clearing aircraft to fly was left up to the authorities.
“Based on the information we have, it is passed on to the control authority to make them aware of what is going on,” Meade said, adding that the information is also passed on to the pilot upon request.
At about 4:16 p.m. on Sunday, the nine-seater Britten-Norman BN2 A Islander, Registration FlyMontserrat flight 107, destined for Montserrat, had taken off from the VC Bird International Airport’s Runway Seven and crashed onto Runway 10 shortly after being airborne.
The pilot, Captain Jason Forbes from Antigua and 29-year-old Annya Duncan of Jamaica were killed when the small aircraft plummeted to the ground on its nose.
Two other passengers, 23-year-old British citizen Michael Hudson and 57-year-old Sandrama Poligadu of Guyana were extracted from the wreckage and rushed to the Mount St. John’s Medical Centre, where the latter died shortly after arrival and the former is said to be in a critical condition.
The Observer noted that Forbes had spent his last hours alive with family members watching West Indies triumph in the World Twenty/20 championships before leaving for Montserrat, where he was scheduled to meet his pregnant wife Florisca.
It also noted that Duncan’s friends were eagerly awaiting her arrival at John Osborne Airport in Montserrat to treat her to a surprise 29th birthday party; and on receipt of her demise, teachers and students at Montserrat Secondary School, where she taught Integrated Science and Mathematics, held a candlelight vigil for her at the learning institution.
And Poligadu, who for the first time ever to have boarded a plane, left Guyana on Sunday for Antigua, from where she would have travelled to Montserrat to meet her daughter who is hospitalised with a complicated pregnancy.
