Posted on Thu, Sep. 20, 2007
Troubled Haitian airline reorganizes
Haiti's largest domestic airline says it plans to use a government restriction on its flights to reorganize and regain its top position in the market following two recent emergency landings within two weeks of each other.
''We want to start anew, and we are taking advantage of this situation to slowly reorganize and plan,'' said Cyril Pressoir, spokesman for Caribintair. ``New plans are coming in. Instead of just quickly flying the planes we have, we are taking this time to reorganize.''
Last week, Haiti's government grounded all of Caribintair's flights pending an investigation by the National Civil Aviation Office after two Cap-Haitien-bound single-engine Cessna Caravans were forced to make hard landings in rural areas.
The most recent incident occured last week. Two people, including the pilot, were injured and the landing left the 13-seat plane upside down and with a badly damaged tail. On Aug. 31, another Cap-Haitien-bound Caribintair flight was forced to make an emergency landing.
''This has been a big blow,'' Pressoir said.
Laurent Dumas, a lead investigator, told The Miami Herald on Thursday that a preliminary investigation revealed that routine maintenance was performed on both aircrafts and that the hard landings were caused by problems with the engines. Both engines are en route to Canada for further investigation.
''The engine broke down, but we don't know why,'' Dumas said in a telephone interview. ``After we have all of those answers, we will be able to issue a final report. The investigation is not finished.''