Four gun-toting foreign passengers yesterday morning hijacked a 13-seater Trans Guyana Airways aircraft bound for Georgetown with eight other passengers just after takeoff from Lethem and ordered the pilot to fly to Brazil where they made good their escape.
The plane spent two and a half hours in Brazilian territory before making its way back to Georgetown, after it was intercepted by the Brazilian military.
Pilotted by Captain Zaul Ramotar, the aircraft left Ogle at 0600 hrs on a routine return trip to Lethem. It landed at Lethem at about 0730 hrs and picked up 12 passengers, including the four hijackers said to be one Uruguayan, one Colombian, one Venezuelan and one Brazilian. The other passengers were: GAP/WPA Member of Parliament Shirley Melville; World Bank Country Coordinator in Guyana James Droop; Keith McLean of the World Bank; C&F Proprietor Peter Fraser; two Britons and two Canadians.
Trans Guyana Operations Director, Captain Roy Jainandan, told Stabroek News yesterday that the airline became aware that something was amiss at about 0920 hrs, the latest time by which the pilot should have filed his flight plan and estimated time of arrival. The plane was to touch down at the Ogle Aerodrome at about 0930 hrs. He said that they tried making radio contact with the plane but failed and he immediately activated a search and rescue mission after alerting the police and the army.
Relating her experience, Melville, who was travelling to Georgetown to attend parliament which reopens today, said that she had been talking to another passenger when about three to five minutes after departing Lethem she saw "a man pointing a gun at me. I thought it was a joke at first. He said to be calm and quiet..."
It was then she realised that it was no joke as there were two men with guns at the front of the cabin and two at the back. She said the passengers realised they were being hijacked and everyone remained calm. The armed men, she said, who appeared to be in their twenties or early thirties, "started to tape our hands together." Using blue masking tape, "they taped the hands of the men to their bodies."
One of the men, who was obviously in command, she said gave the pilot instructions. She recalled that they were travelling in a northerly direction at one time, but after that, she lost all sense of direction. During this time, she said the plane flew very low. "They told us to keep our eyes down and to obey their instructions and we would not be harmed. They spoke in English, Portuguese and Spanish."
After flying for about an hour, she said, that they landed on a dirt strip at a ranch "definitely in Brazil," where they stayed on the ground for about five to ten minutes.
Melville said that they ordered the pilot to take to air again and circle the airstrip. And circling for about another 15 minutes, they then landed on the same dirt strip. This time, she said, the men cut the tapes off them and ordered them out of the plane. She
said the hijackers told them then that all they needed was time.
Fraser said that he saw two saddled horses, which appeared to be waiting for the men and at least one other man, who appeared to be a ranch hand.
World Bank Guyana Country Coordinator, James Droop (second from right) exhales at the Ogle terminal yesterday. At right is Captain Dominic Mendes of Trans Guyana Airways who flew the passengers out. At left is Droop's wife Tessa McPherson. (Ken Moore photo)
Picking up the story, one of the Britons, a retired army officer who had been holidaying at Karanambo with Fraser and others, said that they were taken into a barn-like building, where one of the men told them: "'We are in big trouble.' The chap said they were not murderers and that all they [the passengers] had lost was time. We were very happy to hear that." After about 15 minutes in the barn, the hostages were told that they could leave. "We left as fast as possible without trying to run," one of the Britons said.
He also described the men as being young, putting the one who appeared to be the leader at about 35 years old. On a lighter note and happy "that it was a happy ending," he said that he had planned on a visit to Guyana but did not bargain for Brazil.
Continuing her story, Melville said that once back on board the plane, the pilot, who remained calm throughout the ordeal said that he would try to get them out of Brazil as quickly as possible. However, she said, as they approached the Brazil/Guyana border with both Lethem and Bom Fin in sight, they noted that they were being tailed by a Brazilian military aircraft, which asked who they were and what they were doing in Brazilian territory. Being the only one who spoke Portuguese, Melville said, she informed them that they had been hijacked and were returning to Lethem. At the end of the interview, she said, the Brazilian airforce pilot then told her that he spoke English.
McLean recalled that the hijackers checked for communications equipment in their carry on luggage. His cellular phone was taken away.
Stabroek News was unable to get a comment from the pilot as on his arrival he was being interrogated by the police.
However, Jainandan quoted him as saying that the two of the four armed men took away his personal weapon and headset to prevent him from making any radio communication. They then ordered him to fly to Brazil based on Global Positioning Systems coordinates, which they had in their possession. The aircraft likely covered some 200 miles to and from the remote location in Brazil, where the pilot was ordered to land.
Jainandan said that the pilot, who had been flying without a co-pilot, was back in radio contact with Trans Guyana at around 1105 hrs. The plane landed at Lethem shortly after noon and Captain Dominick Mendes and another pilot flew an aircraft into Lethem with fuel to refuel the hijacked plane. Mendes flew the 13-seater craft with its passengers back to the city, landing at Ogle at 1712 hrs. Ramotar was flown back by the other pilot on the other aircraft, which landed at about 1615 hrs. He was immediately whisked away by police officers.
During a break in his hours-long interrogation, Ramotar appeared in the corridor, seemingly composed. However, Jainandan said that he had been badly shaken by the experience.
Passengers commended Remoter for his professionalism in dealing with the armed men and putting their safety first.
The passengers were concerned about the absence of any security checks before they boarded the plane in the border town of Lethem. In January this year, Air Services Ltd pilot Captain Yacoob Mahazarally was stabbed in mid-air by a passenger shortly after departing Ogle. And in 1996, a Roraima aircraft was hijacked at Kwebanna, on the Waini River and its pilots dumped off. It was later recovered in Colombia.