The charter flight (orange) departed Jamaica about 11:40 a.m. on Tuesday.
.png)
00:00
00:00
00:00
Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Derby, Chairman of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority
By Kimone Witter
The charter flight that has been at the centre of a controversy for several days left Jamaica shortly before noon on Tuesday morning.
The German registered aircraft landed at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston on Thursday with 253 passengers, including crew.
The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority says most of the passengers are Indian nationals while two are from Uzbekistan and Russia.
Chairman of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Derby, told Radio Jamaica News that all passengers and crew were accounted for and processed before the charter departed approximately 11:40 a.m. for Dubai.
He explained that the delay in the flight leaving on Monday, as scheduled, was due to the crew rest requirement of the pilots.
"I know mechanics and the people dealing with the logistics have been at the airport from early this morning, preparing for departure of the flight. The crew will then arrive just before departure and the flight is scheduled to depart when that occurs," he explained earlier on Tuesday.
Colonel Derby said two passengers were not granted leave to land in Jamaica after it was discovered that they did not appear on the submitted passenger manifest.
He said those passengers were allowed to leave the airport on humanitarian grounds, along with the Indian nationals, who had made reservations to stay at the ROK hotel in Kingston.
"So the two who were not landed remained here on humanitarian grounds because it was impractical to send them back by any other means at that time," he noted.
In an update to Radio Jamaica News later Tuesday morning, Klaus Martin, Managing Director of the German registered USC Airline Charter company, said some of the passengers had been awaiting their online visas, which usually takes at least 48 hours.
Questioned about a seeming disparity in the treatment of the two foreigners, compared with Haitian asylum seekers, Colonel Derby sought to explain that "there are circumstances in international aviation which have standards and recommended procedures which are quite different from other situations of arrival in Jamaica".
Still, he argued that when persons turn up illegally on Jamaica's beaches they are "treated with kindness, with dignity and they are put in an approporate place where they can be accommodated and fed until they can leave Jamaica from their next destination".
comments powered by Disqus
All feeds
