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00:21A Cal aircraft runs out of fuel for one of its engines forcing an emergency
00:26landing last night at Piarco during a flight on the air bridge. This is
00:30confirmed by the airline which stated that the flight crew and passengers all
00:34landed safely. The Finance Minister came to the Senate today to answer an urgent
00:39question on the matter from the opposition. Jule Brown reports. The line
00:45minister for state-owned the Caribbean Airlines, Finance Minister Colm Imbert
00:48was in the Senate on Tuesday to answer an urgent question from Leader of
00:53Opposition Business Wade Mark about the emergency landing of a Cal flight. The
00:57Finance Minister said he received a technical report from Cal which stated
01:02the emergency landing occurred at approximately 10 p.m. on Monday at the
01:06Piarco International Airport. One of the engines basically ran out of fuel which
01:13caused the captain to make the mandatory announcement in accordance with civil
01:19aviation regulations to the passengers is that they should get into the
01:25position that is recommended for emergency landing. The captain managed to
01:32pilot the aircraft safely and landed well. There were no injuries or anything
01:40of that nature to the passengers. The Finance Minister said the Cal report
01:44stated the aircraft had the registration 9YTTC. Caribbean Airlines said in a
01:50statement on Tuesday that it was an ATR 72-600 aircraft. And the aircraft has
01:57since been withdrawn from service but it appears the problem arose from inaccurate
02:04measurements of the amount of fuel in the left tank of the aircraft. Can the
02:12Minister indicate Mr. President whether an investigation has been launched and
02:17whether that investigation will in fact result in us the public being more aware
02:24of what actually occurred. The Finance Minister's response was focused on
02:29Cal's own procedures. I did myself ask that question. It's a natural question to
02:35ask. There are three persons involved the pilot and two technicians with respect
02:40to the whole question of how much fuel was in the particular tank that fed the
02:43particular engine that had the problem. So they have been, I don't want to use the
02:51word withdrawn from service, but the aircraft has been withdrawn from service
02:54and these three individuals are not in active service at this point in time
02:58which is normal when you're doing an investigation. Minister Inbred said Cal
03:02will follow their normal procedures in that regard. I don't know the names of
03:07the individuals. I myself, I don't think I should get involved with that but
03:11Caribbean Airlines will follow all the established procedures in accordance
03:15with civil aviation rules and regulations and their own internal
03:19industrial relations procedures to make sure that all persons involved get a
03:24fair hearing and that the root cause of the problem is determined. Okay. Senator
03:31Mark told the Senate there was a similar incident involving a similar Caribbean
03:34Airlines aircraft in August of last year, 2024. May I ask the Honourable Minister
03:39simply whether he's aware of an incident that took place in August of last year
03:45and what steps were taken by the company to address that issue at that time, have
03:52in regard to its reoccurrence. Minister of Finance. No, I am not aware. However, I am told that the
04:00preliminary information is that there's nothing wrong with the aircraft itself.
04:04It was simply the measurement of the amount of fuel that was in the tank so
04:09it's nothing wrong with the plane. I'm not aware of that but thank you for that
04:12information. Now that you've told me that there was an incident with an aircraft
04:17last year, I will certainly ask for details with respect to that matter but
04:23I'm not aware of it. Caribbean Airlines said in a statement that an emergency
04:27landing was declared for its flight BW1541 en route from Tobago to Trinidad
04:32which landed safely at the Piaco Airport on Monday. The state-owned airline
04:36further said the aircraft will be taken out of rotation to facilitate inspection.
04:41Jewel Brown, TV6 News. Meantime, the Trinidad and Tobago Airline Pilots
04:46Association says it is deeply concerned by the recent incidents and notes the
04:51association has raised multiple safety concerns with Cal over the ATR aircraft
04:56over the last decade. The association says although it would be premature to
05:01comment on what caused the incident, in recent months a similar Cal aircraft
05:05have had what the association terms multiple safety related near misses.
05:12Talpa says it is committed to urgently meeting with Cal and all concerned
05:16stakeholders to avoid any future recurrence of this incident as the
05:20safety and comfort of the traveling public members and staff are of utmost
