They’re the ones who should be saving lives, but today it was
the Wings of Hope Air Ambulance that needed saving. The airplane ran off the
runway this morning at the Municipal Airstrip in Belize City. No one was hurt
but all operations at the airstrip were halted for an hour. The Belize Emergency
Response team’s single engine Piper Cherokee 6 was attempting to land
when it had a malfunction. 7NEWS was there and Keith Swift has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
The pilot Mark Thompson says he was attempting to land the Wings of Hope –
this Piper Cherokee 6 at the Municipal Airstrip when the left brake failed.
He had two choices: take to the swamp or dive the plane headlong into the sea.
Thompson – who has been a pilot for 17 years chose land.
Mark Thompson, Pilot
“When we land we try to land in the first two to three hundred feet
of the runway. At that time you have the full flops laid out and you are at
a minimal power and so you clean up, what we call cleanup. We bring the flops
shut and then you begin to apply the brakes. So at that point you realize if
there is a brake failure that the airplane is veering either left or right depending
on which brake fails.”
Yvette Burks, Director - BERT
“He was able to use the presence of mind and instead of taking it
for a swim, he took it on the side of the runway which was soft.”
Mark Thompson,
“Whenever something happens, you think about protecting the people
onboard the airplane and then the airplane if possible.”
Thompson was returning from San Pedro with a patient - described by the Belize
Emergency Response Team as “stable.” BERT’s Executive Director
Yvette Burks says that also immediately after the plane skidded off the runway
– the patient was picked up by an ambulance.
Yvette Burks,
“We are fully integrated and so the pilot had a radio onboard so he
had already called the office and said he was landing in three minutes, 10:54
according to the records, at the office so the ambulance was either already 
here or within a few seconds of being here. So when the incident happened we
were able to quickly go out to the airstrip, move the patient and deliver him
to the hospital.”
Keith Swift,
And that patient didn’t suffer any additional injury?
Yvette Burks,
“To the best of my knowledge, at this juncture, with preliminary reports
from the paramedics who were able to take him off the airplane and move him,
no.”
The patient was okay and so was the plane. After about an hour it was pushed
out of the mud and off the runway. The Civil Aviation Department’s Airworthiness
Inspector Brian Dominguez says all evidence points to a mechanical failure.
Brian Dominguez, Airworthiness Inspector
“He prepared the aircraft and landing which would simply mean he put
in the flops and so forth to slow down the aircraft to its appropriate landing
speed. He claimed that he executed that successfully however in the closing
part of that procedure he then tried to slow down, he needed positive braking,
and it is in that p[art of his procedures that he felt having the mushy brake
on the left hand side. Initially it is apparently just a mishap. We need to
go further into the investigation and that is what we are doing right now.”
And because of that investigation – this morning the airstrip was closed
for at least one hour. That meant all planes were grounded – stranding
impatient tourists and travelers.
Susan Synder, San Pedro Rssident
“I have been here since a quarter of eleven- I had dental surgery
this morning and I just want to go home to
San Pedro and get into bed and rest.”
Lauren Breakell, Tourist
“We’ve been waiting since eleven o’clock and we had a
connecting water taxi to meet us at 11:55. We had to cancel that and it is trouble
for the hotel because they sent the connector to meet us in San Pedro. They
had to go back and forth.”
Yvette Burks says the Wings of Hope has been providing air ambulance services
since 1983 and this is its first incident. She says their safety record is impeccable
Yvette Burks,
“We move patients who need to be moved to another area to further
whatever their treatment is – most of the time obviously to Belize City.
We used to do so many flights to Guatemala, to Merida and all that. Now
we still fly and we fly significantly and I would say to every patient we have
ever served which included my parent, my father, my sister in law after an aneurysm.
I need to say that for those patients it has been the difference between life
and death and it will be my pleasure to see that service will continue uninterrupted
for many years to come to the Belizeans including myself.”
Keith Swift,
And no concern about safety issue?
Yvette Burks,
“All the years we have maintained above and beyond the necessary code
for maintenance of this plane.”
The plane’s annual inspection was scheduled for tomorrow.
The plane is tonight in BERT’s hangar at the Municipal Airstrip.
The annual inspection which was scheduled for tomorrow and that will continue.
Best case scenario is that the plane will be out of service until at least April
1st. The plane flies about 30 hours a month and was acquired by BERT in 1996.
It is valued at roughly $85,000. A trip on the air ambulance will cost you about
one thousand dollars.
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