Cayman flight triggers emergency standby
(CNS): Problems with the landing gear indicator on Monday’s Cayman airways flight from New York saw airport emergency crews placed on standby by at Owen Roberts International Airport but the troubled aircraft landed without incident. Officials from CAL said an issue with one of the main landing gear position indicating systems while on the planes final approach to Grand Cayman, led to Captain Sean Bent to delay the landing until the position of the gear could be confirmed. Airport emergency crews were placed on standby by Air Traffic Control but the flight crew went through the procedures to confirm that the landing gear was in the extended position and the plane was able to land safely shortly after noon.
The aircraft was taken out of service to rectify the defective indicating system, CAL said which will cause delays to KX882 Grand Cayman – La Ceiba which is now departing at 5pm and the return leg KX883 which will now leave La Ceiba for Grand Cayman now departing at 7:20pm.
Following theincident Cayman Airways President and CEO, Fabian Whorms said he understood the concerns whenever emergency crews step into action at the airport.
“This event was one where the landing gear was operating correctly and was fully extended, but an anomaly with the position indicating system gave an incorrect reading,” the airline boss stated.
“We understand and appreciate the concern and anxiety that arises whenever emergency crews are placed on standby for a landing at the airport, however, and would like to apologise for any inconveniences arising from this event. Cayman Airways assures the traveling public that the safety of our operations receives nothing but the highest possible attention and priority at all times, and we would like to thank everyone for their understanding, support, and continued patronage,” Whorms added.
Category: Local News
Update..lets see if CNS or Cayman Compass picks up on the major delay of Jetblue 766 to Jfk today,…Made us sit in the airport for 8hours then cancelled the flight..
Guess what due to an indication light for the revers thrusters..
You will never see this in the news because it only happens on Cayman Airways…right!!
All experts in the field I see. Well thanks for the support overall to the general public CAL owes you tons especially when you have more choices.
Remember CAL has one of the best safety records in the industry for nearly 50 years(knock on wood) I do agree the planes are old but we simply can't afford new ones.
Boeing launched the Dreamliner and finally after so many years it's in service but still very problematic and its brand new.
Cheers!
Cayman Airways is wonderful It generates tons of money and has an economic benifit most just wouldnt understand So what if it needs a little 10 million a year to stay afloat.
In the big picture most of you are just ingrateful and ignorant.
As far as the planes go I understand they are getting old but in reality they have thousands of flights left in them . Afew months ago the paper published the actual cycles these planes have been thru
At least once a month there is an aircraft emergency at our Airport. It is not always a CAL plane and when it is not you do not hear very much about it.
CAL is our airline and so when something happens with one of its planes we expect much more discussion on it.
Miami International Airport has at least one aircraft emergency per day and several Go Arounds and/or rejected take offs and yes that is a much busier airport but people talk about aircraft emergencies in Cayman like it is a rare phenominum when in fact it is not ! SMH
My wife and I were on the plane from New York yesterday, and while it was a truly scary experience we were very appreciative of the professional way the entire incident was handled by the captain and the entire flight crew. They communicated well with the passengers, remained focused and on top of it all. Thanks for getting us home safely!
These planes need to be replaced. They are past their time.
Also agree with a previous poster Re: the need to cut out some of the routes and concentrate on the profitable ones. Reports are that this flight from New York had fifty odd persons on board – that cannot amount to a break-even situation much less profit. And i'm a fairly frquent traveller – nearly always fly CAL and have been on both the New York and Chicago flights before, never seeing more than about sixty persons on board (some of which were CAL staff).
I too want to continue to see CAL fly – I feel proud that we have our own airline, and can depend on CAL in emergencies such as hurricanes….but 10 million dollars per annum to continue on with very old worn out planes (that cost us more than newer ones) just does not make sence, and we cannot afford it (financially, or by way of heightened accident risks).
Sorry 20:10 another brillant REGRESSIVE move by the PROGESSIVES Moses already bought these wornout panes.
Its a pitty that everytime I read these articles online an very rarely see one posted with a name. I am a proud Caymanian and I fly my national flag carrier Cayman Airways. Look around the Caribbean an you can count the islands that own their own national flag carrier on one hand. Why is it that we always put down our own. I would like to bring back a small but one very important piece of history. Just last month we remembered the 10th year of the passaging of hurricane Ivan or as known to many Caymanians and residents and visitors to our shores as Ivan The Terrible. How quick we are to point fingers if my memory serves me correct. Wasnt it Cayman Airways or as I always refer to my national flag carrier as The Turtle that gave free passage off island for so many of us. I for one dont remember any other airline doing such a good deed. Please dont throw stones for my national flag carrier Cayman Airways has been a part of my country for over 40 years and I hope to see that Turtle flying for many more years to come. A big thank you to all employeed at my National Flag Carrier Cayman Airways and the present government and governments to follow. PLEASE KEEP THE TURTLE FLYING A LOYAL AND PROUD CAYMANIAN. Thank you all.
I dont fly them yet I subsidize them. Most nations were smart and didnt get into the buisness.
If you say its for tourism the bollocks to you sir.
Jamacia, Barbados, St Maarten, Bahamas, Aruba, Curacao to name few have no national airline falsly inflating prices and yuet have more tourism.
The statistics can be found right here.
http://www.onecaribbean.org/content/files/2013LattabApril18.pdf
Time to sell it.
Again with the Ivan story….the one-time Ivan extraction was not an act of altruism. The good people of Cayman subsidize the airline heavily – some $10mln a year paid for decades to keep it going. That's not free in my book. Do you know how many 727s you can charter for $10mln?!?
not sure where you would find a B727 these days…the B737 replaced those decades ago..
Well said C. Ebanks.
Not only should we keep the Turtle in the skies, but also in the pot.
Please CAL do not buy these planes but instead lease a newer fleet as it is apparent these planes have past their time. I fly my national carrier whenever I can but now I will be flying AA as their fleet is newer. Will come back when our fleet is upgraded.
BA are the same. How many times in the last few weeks has the BA flight broken down. I was stuck in Bahamas for 2 days, and know it happened the week before and the week after. They give you forms to claim for compensation then turn it down.
You should have consulted Mac he would have advised you how you could spend your extra time at Atlantis !!! LOL………..such a sad political state of affairs !
If you knew anything about planes and aviation you would know that this type of faulty indicator light can occur on any age aircraft from the newest to the oldest. Perhaps you just want an excuse to fly American. Well welcome to the grass piece……..they treat their passengers like cattle ! KX to the bone !!!
I worked at CAL for a while. Thisman Bent is a top pilot and complete professional.
There's nothing like an emergency landing to make you feel alive. It informs your future travel planning. I was a passenger on a CAL plane Aug 5th 2011 that diverted all the way back to Grand Cayman from north of Cuba to carry out their embarressing issue in relative privacy. I think I can speak for many of those passengers when I say we would all have prefered to have thrown the dice at MIA about 30 mins further, with maybe a chance of making our connecting flights. They have a variety of runways, emergency gear, and training for the worst case scenario. Instead, we flew an hour south to land at a small ill-equipped single-strip airport with one tiny hospital. When vanity trumps passenger safety and common sense, it's time to fly another airline. I hope that CAL works to better compensate passengers that endure these nail-biters, and better yet, conduct the necessary early preventative maintenance to ensure they never happen. A fireball-type accident with loss of life would probably end CAL, and resdients and tourists alike would be marooned here for days until the FAA investigators removed the wreckage, repaved, and reopened the single runway.
17:55.Seems like you are being a bit selfish and more concerned about missing your connecting flight,than about anything else.
It was a fire warning light. Kind of a big deal in the aviation business. You kinda want to get on the ground asap with one of those. Havana or Miami were minutes away, but they decided to keep us in the air and divert all the way back to Grand Cayman.
You CLEARLY are an expert in Aviation, so the rest of the populous REALLY should listen to your dribble!!
17:55.I think I will listen to my Cayman airways pilots before Iten to you. You are biased ,plus we do not know the whole story and just cannot trust you to give it to us.
Not gonna say that this cannot and will not happen to new planes, BUT I think it is time for CAL to realistically look at replacing these aged aircraft with newer models, say the 737-700 series. Buy 3 airplanes and concentrate on the somewhat profitable routes and get rid of the others, and run the airline like a BUSINESS, not as a conduit for free tickets to be flowing out. In any event, congrats to Sean for thinking safety first and for ensuring that all lives on the airplane was thought of first and foremost.
Thank God for His mercy and for protecting everyone on board this flight! May He continue to protect us and extend His Hand of Mercy always to the Cayman Islands and worldwide. Lord we praise You and thank You!
So do tell us why "God" decides other planes fall out of the sky? Did they hit the firmament or something?
I would suggest it depends on who is on board. I won't be flying with you in the near future bro'. 🙂
You are embarrassing all the people of this island.
If there was a god, there wouldn't be sick people and accidents.