What happened to SVG Air J8VAX?

Dec.08.06

EDITOR: As the nation and the respective families mourn the sad loss of two lives in the November 19 air mishap, all attention is now focused on the investigations.

While the attention of the public seems to be rightly focused on getting answers to what appears to be a late response to the incident, of equal – or possibly greater – importance, is the actual cause of what is now assumed to be a crash.{{more}}

If we are going to hold tower officials fully accountable for any negligence discovered on their part, it must come after thorough investigations have been carried out into what happened to the plane, its pilot, and lone passenger. The rest of us, the traveling public, simply cannot ignore other more important facts.

We are told that the pilot and tower communicated with each other after the plane left Canouan and then again when it passed Bequia, with just four minutes of the flight remaining. It should then be safe to assume that whatever incident occurred actually happened when the plane was two to three minutes from landing at ET Joshua.

Investigations may well show the tower to be both deficient and inefficient. However, the possibilities as to what could have gone wrong are almost endless. It must be most frightening for the traveling public to assume that an aircraft, recently serviced, engines in perfect order, full of fuel and flown by an experienced pilot, presumably in good health, and in near perfect weather conditions, could have suddenly dropped out of the sky between Bequia and St Vincent, two minutes from landing.

I am sure that the investigations will be comprehensive and will assist in bringing to the fore what actually happened, and thereby some form of closure to this truly sad event.

M I Clavery