Date: 06 JAN 2001
Type: Britten-Norman BN-2A-2 Islander
Operator: Guyana Defence Force
Registration: 8R-GFN
MSN: 289
First flight: 1970
Engines: 2 Lycoming IO-540-K1B5
Crew: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Passengers: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Total: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Airplane damage: Written off
Location: 9 km (5.6 mls) from Mahdia (Guyana)
Phase: En route
Nature: Domestic Non Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: Kato Airport (KTO/SYKT), Guyana
Destination airport: Mahdia Airport (MHA/SYMD), Guyana
Narrative:
Flew into the side of Ebini mountain. The airplane was chartered by a building contractor.
THE bodies of the three men who died when an Army Islander crashed into a mountain in Mahdia Saturday morning were found by a team of soldiers yesterday.
Two were badly burnt but the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) said the bodies were positively identified as Army pilot, Captain Vickram `Vic’ Nandan, Lieutenant Floyd David Gittens and building contractor, Ravindranauth Sharma, 33, of Adventure on the Essequibo Coast
The BN2 Islander broke into several pieces when it plunged through the jungle and slammed into the mountain, a few feet from the top, bursting into flames.
GDF spokesman, Captain Wycliff McAllister said the bodies were being moved from the crash site and would be flown to Georgetown.
The GDF at 09:30 hrs positively identified the remains of the aircraft as those of the missing Islander.
The remains of the aircraft were first seen Monday on Ebini Mountain at a height of 1,750 feet, some 4.5 miles south west of Mahdia.
Searchers in aircraft saw freshly-burnt trees and pieces of an aircraft on the mountain side and the Army dropped members of its crack Special Forces near the site later Monday.
The ground team reached the wreckage yesterday morning, confirming the three had died in the crash.
Nandan, Gittens and three passengers departed Timehri at 06:15 hrs on January 6 and arrived at Kato at 07:30 hrs.
The Army said the aircraft left Kato five minutes later for Mahdia, which is on the route from Kato to Timehri.
Reports have indicated that Nandan made radio contact up to the point when he entered Kato and the Army in conjunction with the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) is attempting to get tapes of the conversations to further affirm the exact point at which he contacted the control tower at Timehri.
On a one-way charter flight from Timehri to Kato, Nandan and four other persons on the aircraft had a cargo that comprised building materials like zinc sheets and nails and some foodstuff that included eggs, the GDF said.
The `payload’ of the BN2 Islander is 1,525 pounds.
Sharma had chartered the plane to take building materials from Timehri to Kato, near the border with Brazil in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni).
He was contracted under the Social Impact Amelioration Programme (SIMAP) to build a nursery/primary school at Kato.
Started last June, the project was 80 per cent completed and Sharma was shuttling the last of the building materials into the interior, his brother Doodnauth Sharma said.
Accompanying him on the journey were two of his workers, Rawle Barton and Barton’s uncle known only as `Patterson’.
The two workers disembarked at Kato with stuff like paint and cement which were onboard, Sharma’s brother said.
He said Sharma would sometimes make three or four shuttles per month using GDF aircraft, most times the Skyvan, depending on the availability of the plane.
Doodnauth said Sharma used to truck materials from Georgetown to Mahdia and then fly to Mahdia, uplift them and take them to Kato.
He believed that the men might have been on that course after the plane departed Kato, and that Sharma used an Islander instead of a Skyvan on this trip because he had less materials.
Sharma slept at the home of his sibling in Lamaha Gardens in Georgetown Friday night before he left for Timehri the next morning.
He was last seen at around 05:00 hrs Saturday when Doodnauth took him to get a mini-bus to travel to Timehri.
Sharma is survived by his wife Arunie and children Gavin, age 13, Nadia, 11 and eight-year-old Lisa.
The GDF said Nandan, 33, was from 41 Area `E’ Ogle, East Coast Demerara and had his traditional schooling at Cummings Lodge Primary and Secondary School.
He has left to mourn his mother, Doorpatie Nandan, his wife and only child, Amy.
The Army said 29-year-old Gittens is survived by his mother, Verna Blenman and father Chilling Worth Gittens.
He lived at 82 William Street, Kitty, Georgetown.
He attended Stella Maris Primary and St Stanislaus College in Georgetown.
After the aircraft was spotted Monday at 12:42 hrs, about 10 members of the GDF 31 Special Forces from search headquarters at Mahdia were deployed in `Operation Hawkeye’.
Also in the search were more than 40 persons, two Islanders from the private sector, a fixed-wing 206 aircraft and the GDF Skyvan.
Using the Bell 412 helicopter, the Special Forces soldiers were rappelled down with special equipment for a closer ground search and to recover survivors in “hostile” terrain with forested ravines and trees more than 200 feet high.
The search and rescue operation was conducted jointly with the CAD which is tasked with the responsibility of air search and rescue in Guyana.
The GDF search mission was supported by the United States Army Southern Command; the U.S. and Brazilian embassies; Air Services Limited; Trans-Guyana Limited; Roraima Airways; Mazda Mining Company Limited and the CAD.
Bodies of crash victims airlifted to city – by Sharon Lall
THE bodies of the three victims in the Army aircraft crash were removed in a difficult operation from the mountain in Mahdia yesterday and flown by helicopter last night to Georgetown.
Thirteen soldiers from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) on duty at Base Camp Ayanganna when the Bell 412 helicopter landed in the compound at 18:15 hrs (6:15 p.m.), did the ceremonial `turning out of the guards’ to honour the dead.
They stood in neat rows and saluted as the bodies of GDF pilot, Captain Vickram `Vic’ Nandan, his co-pilot Lieutenant Floyd David Gittens and building contractor, Ravindranauth Sharma were removed and taken by hearse to a city mortuary.
Nandan’s younger brother, Ravi and Sharma’s brother, Doodnauth, and friends were among those drawn closer to the helicopter, overcome by emotion when the bodies were being lifted into the hearse.
The GDF BN2 Islander crashed into the mountain Saturday morning and the wreckage was spotted Monday after an intensive search by the Army and private sector operators.
Commander Gary Best who headed the `Operation Hawkeye’ task force, last night told reporters at Camp Ayanganna that the GDF successfully completed the extraction phase of the mission although it was a difficult exercise given the “rough terrain” in the jungle.
He announced that Nandan and Gittens will be given a military funeral with full rites.
“The Guyana Defence Force stands behind the families of the deceased. All benefits that will accrue to persons who lose their lives while in service will be (given) to the next of kin of the families.”
He said the aircraft that Nandan was flying was “airworthy” and had “completed all its maintenance schedule.”
He explained that the bodies had to be removed from the top of the Ebini Mountain, 4.5 miles southwest of Mahdia in “difficult (and) rough terrain”.
“We had to cut an opening for the helicopter to go in and extract the bodies. The cutting and the opening of that jungle is what took time.
“There was no delay in any point of time in getting the bodies to Georgetown”, he said. “The Special Forces troops had to climb the Ebini Mountain (and) get to the top, establish a landing pad for the helicopter (and) then establish an extracting site (for the) bodies,” he said.
He added: “They (soldiers) had to go through rough terrain. The jungle is very hostile. The trees grow 150 to 200 feet high and that made the task difficult but we were successful and completed it.”
He said investigations were continuing into the cause of the crash.
The bodies were found by a team of soldiers Tuesday and positively identified as the missing men.
The BN2 Islander they were in had broken into several pieces when it plunged through the jungle and slammed into the mountain, a few feet from the top, bursting into flames.
The remains of the aircraft were first seen Monday on the mountain at a height of 1,750 feet, the Army said.
Searchers in aircraft saw freshly burnt trees and pieces of an aircraft on the mountain side and the Army dropped members of its crack Special Forces near the site later Monday.
The ground team reached the wreckage Tuesday morning, confirming the three had died in the crash.
The Army said Nandan, Gittens and three passengers departed Timehri at 06:15 hrs on Saturday and arrived at Kato at 07:30 hrs.
It said the aircraft left Kato five minutes later for Mahdia, which is on the route from Kato to Timehri.
On a one-way charter flight from Timehri to Kato, Nandan and four other persons on the aircraft had a cargo that comprised building materials like zinc sheets and nails and some foodstuff that included eggs, the GDF said.
The `payload’ of the BN2 Islander is 1,525 pounds.
Sharma, 33, from Adventure on the Essequibo Coast, had chartered the plane to take building materials from Timehri to Kato, near the border with Brazil in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni).
He was contracted under the Social Impact Amelioration Programme (SIMAP) to build a nursery/primary school at Kato.
Accompanying him on the journey were two of his workers, Rawle Barton and Barton’s uncle known only as `Patterson’.
The two workers disembarked at Kato with stuff like paint and cement which were onboard, Sharma’s brother Doodnauth said.
Sharma is survived by his wife Arunie and children Gavin, age 13, Nadia, 11 and eight-year-old Lisa.
Nandan, 33, was from 41 Area `E’ Ogle, East Coast Demerara and had his traditional schooling at Cummings Lodge Primary and Secondary School.
The Army said 29-year-old Gittens is survived by his mother, Verna Blenman and father Chilling Worth Gittens. He lived at 82 William Street, Kitty, Georgetown.
Ravi Nandan last night told reporters the Army had not said much initially until later when the family was informed that he was “burnt to death”.
He said Nandan has an eight-year-old daughter, Amy and wife to whom he had been married for 13 years.
Ravi said he last saw his brother on Friday when he left to go to sleep.
He said he was an “excellent” person.
Also in the search were more than 40 persons, two Islanders from the private sector, a fixed-wing 206 aircraft and the GDF Skyvan.
