It took two and a half years to complete, but at the end of the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the mid-air stabbing of a pilot, Principal Magistrate Oscar Parvatan ruled that a case of attempted murder had been made against a former Chronicle journalist.

Sharon Lall, 24, is now facing two counts of attempted murder, one against Yacoob Mazaharally (Jnr), who at the time of the incident in January of 2001, was a pilot with Air Services Limited flyer, and the other cited against Vidya Gooray, a passenger on the same flight.

The young woman is accused of stabbing Mazaharally and Gooray while they and Gooray’s nine-year-old daughter were all in a Cessna aircraft en route from Ogle, East Coast Demerara, to Spring Garden, Essequibo Coast.

The pilot sustained wounds to the neck, but managed to safely return the four-seater plane to Ogle.

The absence of prosecution witnesses forced several adjournments, but when the matter was called again at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court earlier this month, the Police Prosecutor closed his case and Lall was committed to stand jury trial.