By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

WHILE police hunt the persons responsible for planting two “explosive caps” in the middle of  the runway at Mayaguana Airport on Sunday the local MP has called for residents on the island not to “take matters into their own hands”.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson, police in Mayaguana went to the airport after receiving anonymous information on Sunday night that persons had been seen tampering with the runway.

“No explosion took place, but we are actively investigating this matter,” ACP Ferguson said. “It appeared as though they removed the portable solar lights and drilled a hole in the runway to place the explosive caps. We are looking for these persons who caused minor damage to the runway. The airport is safe and open and we do not want people to be afraid.”

He said the blasting caps alone could not have caused an explosion. “That is not the way those devices work. What was there could not have formed or caused an explosion, the caps do not function like that. You need other parts to cause an explosion.”

ACP Ferguson said a team of officers from New Providence is in Mayaguana conducting interviews and searching for suspects.

While the explosive devices were discovered on Sunday the media was not alerted to the incident until Member of Parliament for MICAL, V Alfred Gray, mentioned it in the House of Assembly yesterday morning.

He urged the residents of Mayaguana not to “take matters in their own hands”, no matter how angry they might be.

He said: “I do not want to make light of this because the people of Mayaguana have gone through a lot in the last couple months, probably two years, but someone put explosive caps on the runway. Thanks to good fortune it was discovered in time and an incident was avoided. But I want the people of Mayaguana to hear me – do not ever take the law into your own hands, no matter how angry you may be, no matter what the circumstances are.

“I am talking to Mayaguana people. There is a better way; we cannot afford for them to get angry for whatever reason and try to endanger the lives of other people. We have got to learn how to settle things by talking. It is very serious.”

The Mayaguana Airport reopened to commercial carriers and aircraft over 6,000lbs in April, a year after an aircraft, forced to make a risky midnight landing, crashed into a truck, setting it on fire and killing its three occupants.

The truck was being used to light the runway for the plane to land. Two months after the tragedy, permanent solar lights were purchased for the airport.