Pilot dies in plane crash near Kaieteur Falls
GUYANA - An Air Services Limited (ASL) pilot died early Sunday when the Cessna 206 aircraft he was flying between Chi-Chi and Mahdia, Region Eight went down in thick vegetation, in the vicinity of the Kaieteur Falls gorge.
Captain Imran Khan was shuttling between the two villages and was scheduled to land at Mahdia at 08:47 hrs when the accident occurred. His body has been located by ranks from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and will be brought to the city today.
Director of Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Egbert Field said that at 09:08 hrs yesterday, the emergency locator signal from the aircraft, bearing registration number, 8R-GFM ASL was picked up. He noted that just after lunch, an aircraft, looking for the crash site, spotted the wreckage and a Search and Rescue Team from the GDF was deployed to the area where they later confirmed that the pilot had died.
Khan, who was flying solo, had been working with ASL for a number of years and flew between Chi-Chi and Mahdia almost daily. The Accident and Emergency Unit of the GCAA will head to the scene today to begin their investigation.
Just last month, Roraima Airways’ Chief pilot, Captain Collin Martin died when the Britten-Norman Islander aircraft he was attempting to land at the Eteringbang airstrip, nose-dived into thick vegetation, a short distance from the runway.
The 40-year-old pilot, who was at the time, flying solo was shutting fuel for miners when his plane crashed.
The investigation into that accident is currently ongoing and the engine from the plane should be leaving Guyana soon to go to its manufacturer to determine whether it contributed to the fatal crash.
Early this month, Captain Dominic Waddell of Wing’s Aviation survived a plane crash at Eteringbang; just days after Martin lost his life. He was on a shuttling mission in the area when his plane went down.
In December 2014, an ASL aircraft disappeared in the jungle shortly after taking off for Karisparu, in the Potaro-Siparuni. Pilot Nicky Persaud, 27, and cargo-handler David Bisnauth 51, were on a shuttling mission on the Britten Norman Islander (8R-GHE) when it vanished with both men. And in 2008, a Beechcraft King Air plane with pilot, Captain James Wesley Barker, 28, First Officer Chris Paris, 23, both US citizens, and Canadian Patrick Murphy, a Geophysics technician disappeared in the Mazaruni area, while conducting Aerial surveys on behalf of Prometheus Resources (Guyana) Inc. a Canadian Company that was hoping to locate uranium deposits in the vicinity of Chi Chi, Cuyuni/Mazaruni.
(Kaieteurnews)