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Stewart WESTERN BUREAU
THE CHAIRMAN of Air Jamaica, Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, yesterday appealed to delegates from more than 100 countries attending a conference in Montego Bay to assist in improving security at Jamaica's two major airports by providing technicians to operate the navigational systems.
In addressing the 2002 International Forum of the Americas at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay, Mr. Stewart lamented the fact that training for air traffic controllers had not yet started, despite commitments from the Jamaican government to get the training going to improve operations at the airports.
"I think it has slipped into bureaucracy ... and we still have not started the training. I reach out and ask, maybe one of our delegates here represents a country which can provide technicians for a two-year period until our people are trained to operate the radar," Mr. Stewart said.
The estimated cost of training the technicians is about US$2.5 million to $3 million and training should last 1 1/2 to two years. Air Jamaica, he said, had saved US$6 million-US$7 million annually since the radar system was installed.
"No airport that doesn't have radar can be considered up to date and serious," Mr. Stewart said.
The Government announced it would spend $190 million to train air traffic controllers, following an incident involving Air Jamaica Flight 010 last November in which the aircraft missed the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston by about five miles.
Minister of Transport and Works Robert Pickersgill, who was a passenger on the flight, ordered a full investigation into the incident. However, the Civil Aviation Authority submitted an interim report which ruled out the navigational systems contributing to the pilot getting wrong information.
