Agony for Stranded Passengers

(As part of observances for its 30th anniversary, Stabroek News will be reproducing snippets from its earlier years on page four of each day’s newspaper.) BAIJNAUTH, of Flushing, Queens in New York, his wife and three children should have been back in New York since January 4.

They came to join relatives here for the Christmas holidays but the carrier which brought them, SunCoast, has been reportedly grounded — and so are the Baijnauths and hundreds of others.

“We are stranded,” Baijnauth said. “I can’t get back to work, nor can my wife. I should have been on the job today (Monday). I have worked there 14 years and most likely I won’t get back the position I had when I left.”

Baijnauth says he had risen to the post as Manager of a New York cafeteria and because he had had to extend his leave due to the SunCoast grounding, he would probably definite,” complained the man, who said he has had to travel everyday from Tain Settlement in Berbice to Georgetown to try to get out.

Others have been here since late December without their luggage. “This is ‘nuff stupidness, an angry young man shouted as a harried agency employee slipped through a halfopened door and away from the milling crowd Monday.

Cracked one wit, obviously out of sheer frustration, “I got me family home; I got me job to lose and me wife gon run away – she’s impatient!”

And another ventured: “Why don’t they send us back with Laparkan or one of the shipping agencies? We might get back faster.”