Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA'S YOUNG Sunshine Girls, after placing second in the Caribbean Netball Association's Under-16 Championships, are stuck in St. Kitts.
They were expected in the island close to mid-day yesterday on a BWIA flight, but there were no Girls to be seen at the airport at that time. As a matter of fact, the Girls might not be able to get into the island until Wednesday.
Apparently, a connecting LIAT flight between St. Kitts and Antigua that should have left at 8:05 a.m. yesterday morning never transpired.
The Girls, according to their team manager, Arlene Findlay, were made to wait from 6:00 a.m. yesterday morning until after 2:00 p.m. before they were offered rooms in a hotel.
"We have been told that we cannot go home until Wednesday and that is not even a surety," said Findlay.
Their real hope of leaving earlier now lies with finding a suitable connection based on whenever LIAT can fly the Jamaicans to Antigua, and when the Jamaicans can, in turn, get a BWIA flight from Antigua to Jamaica, since they have already missed their connection.
"We have been hearing all sorts of things. We have been hearing that BWIA doesn't fly everyday and that there is no space for us but we are still hopeful," said Findlay.
For those families anxiously awaiting the return of their children, Findlay has assured them that they are fine.
"Some of the girls are making the best of it but some miss their families and want to go home," she said.
Findlay's biggest grouch was the lack of professionalism that the airline displayed.
"If you know that there is no space for us, how is it that you have the little girls waiting from after 6:00 a.m. until 2 p.m.. They had to sleep on hard airport chairs and things like that.
"We should have been put in a hotel a long time before we were," said Findlay.
