“It is worrying that high ranking officials within the Department of Civil Aviation could so mislead our prime minister.”
Radar & Communication Outages Have NOTHING To Do With Squatters Near The Airport
I have been following with interest comments made in the press about the effects of squatters on the radar readout in Adams airspace. It is worrying that high ranking officials within the Department of Civil Aviation could so mislead our prime minister. Also of concern is the fact that matters of grave importance have not been given equal attention by these department heads.
Some two Saturdays ago controllers at Adams were hit with random power outages where on at least 3 occasions on the same day there was total radar and communication outages, I cannot overstate how potentially dangerous this situation was and is as the potential for it to occur at anytime remains.
What is worrying is there is supposed to be back-ups to guard against this.
These back-ups failed.
Approaching two weeks later the controllers are still working with minimum telecommunication facilities, and they continue to be concerned about the inadequacy of the frequencies available for communication with aircraft.
They have brought this and other matters to management’s attention countless times over the last few years. Every attempt to have this and other matters such as critical staffing levels, inadequate lighting, inadequate maintenance and such address have met with failure. More so when these matters are put out in the public domain they are downplayed by our managers and the stories which should be of critical concern to all are given less than adequate attention by the media. It is feared that in this instance like so many on this little rock some great disaster will have to occur before those in a position to do something actually act.
At the route of the problem lies one of the most substandard management teams within government…., they have failed at almost every level to efficiently oversee the department. Air traffic continues to function in Barbados because of a dedicated, overworked and short staffed team of controllers who do the best they can with with what little they have.
Case in point – within the last 2 years the government of Barbados was called upon to replace their simulator so much needed training could occur. This endeavour cost the government millions.
This system was bought and is now sitting at the Barbados School of Air Traffic Control in a state of dis-repair due to inadequate maintenance.
Yet another waste of government funds.
Barbados Free Press 
St. Peter Bay are also Squatting as Ms. Westerman’s title deeds are in her family’s possesion and yet to have their day in court. Culprits- Llyod Smith(lawyer), Lincoln Scantlebury(Prime Minister personal aide), Michael Simmons(dis-barred lawyer-fugitive and all the other bastards involved.
I simply cannot understand how you can spend $155 million on airport improvements, increase the airport tax by 140 per cent (and tax children and intransit passengers for the first time) which brings in an estimated $90 million annually alone, and not upgrade a fundamental safety component like air traffic control.
These are the same people that didn’t think a airport based medical facility was an initial requirement.
Jeremy Greaves It appears to me that she needs the help of Mr Lashley the DLP candiate to get some action on this matter.
Your list of names mentioned are too closely connected to Owing See Thru Rum Arthur to get justice.
Probably just forgot the Back up generators because they only cost a few thousand dollars and would be a small item in a $155 million contract.
The skies in Barbados are very clear so Radar not important. We got binoculars.
Sarcasm intended.
Is this issue of the squatters at the airport really an issue or is it more about the PM and company getting planning permission for lands right next door to create a development and do not want chattel houses around their property.
I just heard a Mr Trotman the Lawyer representing the squatters state the beyond any shadow of doubt the Town and country Department has recently issued planning permission of the adjoining piece of land, knowing about life in Barbados it would not surprise me if Owing et al are the ones seeking to development the adjoining lands.
I am a layperson not technically literate, but what Flyboy said about power outages at GAIA for the traffic controllers is downright scary.
I thought those squatter houses they want to tear down was the cause for concern on planes landing. It did not make sense to me because houses are often in the flight path of a runway,
Do the radio waves reflect off the galvanise roofs or something to make it dangerous for pilots to land? Or are their CB radios on too loud?
You don’t mention those squatter houses as being part of the problem. Are they being used by the politicians as a diversion in case there is a crisis?
Also, did you notice how CTP Cummins said on TV how “the minister responsible” did this, and the “minister responsible” decided that. We all know that “the minister responsible” is the Minister of Planning and Development, a.k.a. Owen Seymour Arthur, our Prime Minister.
Is the Chief Town Planner scared or shy of calling his name? Or just trying to be diplomatic with his circumspection?
deb thomas maybe for the reason below -:
I just heard a Mr Trotman the Lawyer representing the squatters state the beyond any shadow of doubt the Town and country Department has recently issued planning permission of the adjoining piece of land, knowing about life in Barbados it would not surprise me if Owing et al are the ones seeking to development the adjoining lands.
Is everybody sure Owen isn’t looking to take over the lands himself and just put up houses without galvanize roof as he claim is de issue and declare himself a hero????
I was following this story from it’s inception and this could be one for the tents next year as part of the MC’s monologue.
Galvanized roofs causing the radar to present controllers with multiple “targets” which is radar terminology for an object that it is tracking is simply an erroneous starement to make.
If this were true, then I guess, that the Concorde facility which lays less than 1/8th of a mile from the radar should be the biggest reflector of radar energy and should cause multiple false positives to show up on the scope based on it’s sheer size and radar cross section.
Mind you, the person who provided the PM with this information which was so erroneously mis-leading is the SAME person who wanted to know a few weeks ago when British Airways declared a full emergency at the boundary of our airspace ( about 60 miles off the coast of the island &while it was at cruising altitude mind you) what the big deal was with them turning around just because a door was rattling. Well, can you imagine being a passenger on an aircraft about 35,000 feet up and travelling in excess of 500Mph when a door started rattling and cabin pressure started to drop, that the point of your origin did not want you to return?
Would you feel comfortable knowing that your captain was expected to continue the 3940+ miles to your destination with a door which could possibly be torn off the hinges and you sucked out?
Some people talk because they deem it appropriate to do so. And when asked about things that they did not keep current with, spew garbage from every orifice instead of consulting the radar manual (verbatim if necessary).
What was probably not mentioned in the tiraide that eminated from this person, was that the same false images which appear from time to time are exact mirror images located @ a point some 180 degrees from the actual target.
Hence, if an aircraft is approaching from the South-East at 230knots and 40 miles from the airfield and an image of the aircraft occurs at that point in time, it presents itself in the North-West at 230Knots and 40 miles off the coast.
The major differentiating factor here is the direction. Speed and distance remain the same.
Aircraft perform an action known as squaking. Some birds do this and in aircraft terminology all this amounts to is an identification marker. Think of it as an electronic license plate which the radar “sees” and uses it to differentiate one aircraft from another. Since an aircraft is not always visible( as a result of cloud cover, distance, or altitude)this squawk will tell a controller which aircraft he/she is observing.
We can go into why this specific radar system does present multiple images from time to time, and what the corrective measures are, but suffice to say the technical jargon may be of little or no interest when related to the main point here. That point is, the squatters and the accusations levelled at them of causing radar malfunctions.
This is simply not true. Plain and simple.
The call-in programmes were ripe with calls on this issue for the last two days and no one seems to be buying the explanation for the sudden drive to relieve the lands adjacent to the airport of squatters.
The PM needed to come out and say that in no uncertain terms, squatting is illegal and squatting on government lands is not a situation that his administration would tolerate.
The End!
Oh, and by the way, we now more then ever, need to implement an examination in competency and professionalism for the many nut-cases who are part of critical operations like the Airport, Civil Aviation and Air Saftey.
The “old hands” need to make way for fresh ideas and stop holding this country to ransom!
assuming that there is a private authority running the airport and assuming that there is more than adequate funding to maintain the airport, then a shift to competent management is required immediately.
My suspicious nature, however, tells me that government is still tapping airport funds to general revenue and this is would be just as serious a problem.
Where is the head of the airport authority and what are his explanations for this fiasco. Or his he just another emasculated muzzled dog waiting for scraps from the master ?
TheWatcher
I can see from your informative posting that you are very closely involved with the operations at the tower at GAIA, who is the person advising Owing on this fiasco ?
Surely it is not the Airport Manager?
Should this be the case he really need to be relieved of his job forthwith.
My concern is the revelation today by the Attorney-at – Law Mr Trotman who clearly stated that these ajoining lands have just been passed by the town and country department for development.
It is mind boggling that we can have a hazzard in one location and right next door we have an approval for buildings, sounds quite supicious to me, is the PM and his hench men involved here again is Nicholls, Shorey, Bannister involved as well ?
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Heh, we get what we pay for. Hundreds of millions spent on a new airport and a big fuss made when professional management was to be hired. Instead we get the manager of Guyana’s airport to come run ours. Half the cost and half the management. Makes a load of sense to me.
This guy cannot even take down the old CWC signage around the airport arrival and departure areas. Some still up after 4 months.
I believe that I heard somewhere that Air Traffic Control stayed with the Government and was not corporatised/privatised with GAIA.
CSME (Call Seymour, Mottley Easy?) at work one thing he would know about would be preventing trafficking thru GAIA as that would have been his past time at the airport in Guyana.
Is he the one advising Owing? or Owing is acting for his own reasons ?
WHAT y’all worried bout?
We all know that nothing doan happen bout-hey until somebody dead
One good crash, nuff people dead,
and the problem get fix within the next 3-6 months.
BUT somebody got to dead, first.
Sit back and relax.
It’ll all be on the 7 o’ clock CBC-TV news.
Just pray dat you, or none of yourn en’ pun de flight.
Sight?
WIV :
Call Seymour, Mottley, Easy?
What’s that all about?
You let Lynette off the hook already?
I thought you was a terrier.
Straight talk trust me Lynette got more licks coming than cares to know about, so Duguid the man is a crook not only in politics but in the dental profession as well more to come on that score later,Gill got his questions to respond to about his questionable building contracts and his sloppy unfinished work, but I see where his opponents child did well in cape, well done to them, son like mother brilliant and sharp, good for them and all power to her and all the DLP team in the upcoming elections I hope that the lord gives me the time to see that ambigious thing Mottley out of the house of assembly.
That’s the WIV we know and love.
I thought you were Trotman softening.
I have been on both side of the fence that is I voted for a BLP representive on the last two occasions but have seen the extent of the corruption taking place around me and in particular the corruption that is the Owing gang in Nicholls, Wilkinson, Shorey, Bannister et al.
Not one more time not a single vote from my household no way they need to be kicked out without question.
I’m not convinced British Airways is capable of defining an emergency.
Not too long ago a British Airways flight departed Los Angeles for the UK. The crew was informed by air traffic controllers that one of the four engines was on fire, and visible. The response of the air crew was to say that they would check with the Company (British Airways) and make a decision.
Unbelievably, the “collective decision” between the pilots and BA dispatch was to go, and proceed over 5,000 miles on 3 engines to the UK, with a full load of passengers. Barry Schiff, a columnist with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has written about this episode.
Bajan George
Ok and what was the outcome?
All was well was it not?
These aircraft are built with safety in mind and trust me a lot of thought would have gone into that decision to proceed on route to the UK.
This is not a decision that would have been made by the flight deck crew in isolation they would have had the datalink in full operation getting feedback from head office and maybe even Boeing in the USA, to proceed would have meant that they could achieve cruising altitude and fuel burn would have been within the expectations of the reduced cruising altitude and the reserves would have been intact.
Do not underestimate the thought processes that would have gone into the decision to continue to destination, also there would have been the consideration of the repairs to be undertaken and I am certain that it would have been carried out very much cheaper back at homebase, hence once all things were taken into consideration and rated the safe decison was taken to continue onto the UK.
If you consider for a moment that a 777 is capable of carrying a full load and takeoff with one engine disabled this will give you some idea of the safety measures built into these pieces of equipment.
Now that story brings to mind memories of the Lockheed Constellation, affectionately known by aviation aficionados as “The Connie.” It was said in her day that The Connie was the best 3 engine airliner in the world, due to the frequency with which in flight engine problems would require one of its 4 engines to have to be shut down mid flight (oftentimes somewhere over the mid Atlantic between Europe and North America) and the flight completed on 3 engines.
Those were the days of turbocharged and/or supercharged radial piston engines, which were more mechanically complicated and temperamental than the high bypass turbofans of our modern , commercial, jet aircraft.
WIV, you are off the mark. The decision carried out by the BA 747 crew has been widely criticised by professional pilots. It has nothing to do with the capability of the aircraft, it has everything to do with maintaining redundancies and the integrity of the pilot-in-command structure. As a pilot and a former businessman in aviation, I was shocked by the account of the BA captain acquiescing to company pressures which were borne of economics, not safety. North Atlantic and polar routes deserve respect, as they are not forgiving of such mistakes.
Really what the question is was it the right or wrong decision?
Based on the outcome it was a sound decision, yes the economics had a role to play in the decision making process but I would suggest that if there was a real risk the decision would have differed.
When Wardair clipped the tail of the aircraft at Seawell airport some years ago the captain made the decision to get the gear up and with no waring lights on continued onto Toronto as he said whatever needed to be fixed would have been easier fixed at their homebase that somewhere else hence his decision to continue onroute to Toronto.
I doubt very much that the decision to continue onto the UK would have been taken lightly, not with BA’s reputation at stake, I am sure a lot of soul searching went into that decision.
WIV wrote: “Based on the outcome it was a sound decision.”
Thousands of pilots vehemently disagree with your logic. Continuing to fly a disabled aircraft, when the extent of the damage is unknown, is sheer folly. It’s time to get that aircraft on the ground, asap. The biggest accidents start with the smallest things. A spark in a tank from frayed wiring, a worn jack screw, a hairline fracture in a casting – choose any one and you can find documented fatal accidents that have claimed thousands of lives.
Many professionals in the industry believe the BA corporate decision to continue the 747 flight at full fuel, full payload over some of the most inhospitable places on earth without knowing the extent of the fire damage was one of the most irresponsible acts ever in the history of commercial aviation.
As to your belief that a lot of “soul searching” must have been part of the decision, may I suggest that no ground controller or corporate flight dispatcher has ever died when they made a mistake that adversely affected the integrity of a flight. I am certain that the BA pilots were faced with a corporate culture that pressured them unduly, contrary to regulations that protect the integrity of the pilot-in-command structure.
Are you suggesting that flight operations would not have been contacted or alerted as to this emergency ????
WIV: No.
WIV: Meaning, no, I’m not suggesting that.
Who is this Trotman that is speaking for the Squatters in St. Philip? Is it Sir Roy or is it the Trotman who is the son-in-law of the Prime Minister Owne Arthur’s Personal Secretary, Mrs King? If he is then he should be in a good position ot know if permission has been granted to develop the land on which the squatters sit and who are the persons involved, don’t you think?
Reading between the lines of his contribution to Brass Tacks yesterday, he knows a lot more tha just planning applications.
He said ” my truck is filling” with info, presumably about the developers four times renamed Cayman Is. company registered here in Barbados.
This can’t be just about squatters, things will either go very quiet or get very interesting, especially as Trotman is a prospective Independent candidate for that area.
Actually I was very impressed with his details and his clarity on these matters he is much better informed than one would have guessed.
The BLP will be hard press to win a seat in the next election. I am more convince of this now than when i first made the comment last year. But i must temper this with my believe that Barbadians are yet to demonstrate any seriousness about what they must do to demonstrate to the political class that their local needs are not for sale or to be ignored, and neither will they allow said needs to take a perpetual back seat to national needs.
Lets us look closely at this scam to the people by the airport.
On the evidence is now clear to see that they pose no threat to incoming aircraft because if the pilot is not visual with only yards to touch down he needs more than the services of the radar to land that plane safely.
All the evidence has proven these stories to be rampant lies about being a risk to the traffic at the airport if the Director of Civil Aviation uttered those words he to ought to be fired.
However what we now know thanks to a Mr Trotman that the ajoining lands are owned by a Cayman Islands Company shell, now who ows this company is the question but I have a few guesses that will be pretty much on the money,part two is he also revealed that the TCP dept recently gave planning permission for this adjoining lands for develoment does this not beg the question who owns this land and what is the permission for and to erect what ?
My uneducated guess and uneducated it will be, is that Owing, Nicholls, Shorey, Bannister and Wilkinson are part and parcel of this arrangement to scupper these residents to make the lands more available and inviting for use.
When we obtain documents showing the TCP permission granted and who it has been granted to and the owners of the shell company in the Cayman Islands all the pieces will fall into place.
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Who exactly are Balmoral Investments Limited?
Balmoral House Securities (Barbados) Ltd
Balmoral Investments Ltd
and
Balmoral Limited
are all registered with the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office in Barbados.
What is their principal business and who are the company directors?
Balmoral Investments Ltd are also registered in Israel, Jamaica and British Columbia (Canada).
Adrian you are a smart enough man to know what is going on here and I alluded to it on another Blog. The entire situation here smells of “Money Laundering”.
Adrian you are a smart enough man that does not need to ask this question because you know the answer. “Money Laundering”. I asked a similar question on another blog!
It is about time time the Government of Barbados be held accountable for every penny they spend. Too long has corruption been allowed and it’s not time to but this to an end. Barbados is at a cross roads in it development and does not need a major accident to tarnish its reputation. I say, its time to call for an election… And time time vote for people with the education to get the job done right the first time around. This incompetence can be tolerated no longer
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