An engine ran out of fuel.
That’s the reason why a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) flight–BW 1541–had to face an emergency landing on its way from Tobago on Monday night.
Confirmation came from Finance Minister Colm Imbert in the Senate on Tuesday, in response to a question from Opposition Senator Wade Mark.
In a media release late on Monday, CAL acknowledged the incident and noted that the ATR 72-600 aircraft landed safely at Piarco International Airport. The airline also noted that the required procedures were being followed and the aircraft would have been taken out of rotation to facilitate inspection.
The airline said nothing else regarding the emergency landing.
Imbert told the Senate however that based on a report he received, the plane’s left engine ran out of fuel as an insufficient amount was pumped in.
He said: “Based on what I’m seeing in this report–it’s very technical but it appears that there was a problem with fuel for one of the engines and…one of the engines basically ran out of fuel.”
Imbert said the Captain would have then informed all passengers to get into the required position to facilitate an emergency landing.
“The Captain managed to pilot the aircraft safely and landed well. There were no injuries or anything of that nature to the passengers and the aircraft has since been withdrawn from service,” he said.
“But it appears the problem arose from inaccurate measurements of the amount of fuel in the left tank of the aircraft,” the minister added.
Asked by Mark whether an investigation had since been launched into the matter, Imbert said there were three persons involved–a pilot and two technicians–who are now “not in active service” which he said was “normal” when an investigation is ongoing.
He explained: “They will follow procedure…I don’t want to say much…I don’t know the names of the individuals myself. I don’t think I should get involved in that, but Caribbean Airlines will follow all the established procedures in accordance with civil aviation rules and regulations, and their own internal industrial relation procedures to make sure that all persons involved get a fair hearing and that the root cause of the problem is determined.”
Asked whether the incident occurred as a result of an issue with the aircraft, Imbert said:
“I am told that the preliminary information is that there’s nothing wrong with the aircraft itself, it was simply the measurement of the amount of fuel that was in the tank. So nothing is wrong with the plane
