By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM and Aviation Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar yesterday confirmed emergency lights at all government-owned airport runways are operational.

His comments follow intense public scrutiny over whether the use of those lights could have assisted missing pilot Byron Ferguson, whose aircraft crashed in the waters of Nirvana Beach on November 8th.

Byron’s elder brother Bjorn Ferguson claimed his brother had to bypass three Family Island airports, Chub Cay, Great Harbour Cay, and San Andros, but could not land on the unlit runways.

Yesterday, Mr D’Aguilar told The Tribune state-owned airport runways are outfitted with emergency lights that are only mobilised upon request.

Mr D’Aguilar said he was “not aware” as to whether Mr Ferguson made a request to land at a Family Island airport.

For his part, Acting Director in the Department of Civil Aviation Keith Major declined to comment on the matter, saying all relevant information has been turned over to the Air Accident Investigation Department (AAID).

“When you get into an investigation, everybody tends to clamp down in order to get the facts,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “These things take time.”

“I have not heard from the authorities. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. I have not heard whether that request was made.”

During an emotional press conference held on November 11, Byron’s relatives said despite his plane’s mechanical difficulties, he had no choice but to try to make it to Nassau’s airport.

His elder brother, Bjorn Ferguson, said: “Three. Three airports. Three airports he had to pass when he first encountered this emergency. And he could not take the plane down because no lights on the friggen runway (sic).

“He had to pass three runways: Chub Cay, Great Harbour Cay, and San Andros, to make it here on one engine, trying to get this plane here on one engine to LPIA. It is retarded. Retarded. And if you’re going to give the excuse of ‘(oh) we don’t light it up because of drug planes,’ that is retarded.”

Yesterday, Mr D’Aguilar confirmed the lights are “purposefully” turned off as a national security measure, such as not enabling drug smuggling.

“There’s certainly sufficient lighting at every airport where if someone had to make an emergency landing they could,” Mr D’Aguilar said, “but there’s a protocol for that.”

“What happens is in an emergency, I’m advised…that a pilot in distress would radio the tower in Nassau that he or she is in distress and (request) permission to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport.

Mr D’Aguilar continued: “And then the protocol is that the tower would then call the necessary person on that island and the police…and they would make their way to the airport, using a remote control device, (and) engage the lighting. And the person could use it. So that kind of protocol has been established.”

In response to tabloid reports that Family Island runways did not have lights, former Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna Martin confirmed the “full complement” of government-owned airport runways were outfitted with emergency lights during her tenure over the last two PLP terms.

Mrs Hanna Martin said this was a “policy decision”, made in direct response to a dearth of lights contributing to plane crashes and accidents in years past.

Authorities’ response to the plane crash has been subject to intense scrutiny in the last week, especially after volunteer divers associated with Head Knowles, a community support group, recovered substantial parts of the Piper Aztec plane on Thursday.

Mrs Hanna Martin said it was “mind-boggling” that civilians were able to find the plane while authorities were not.

“I think we have to wait until the investigation is completed. But I know that it’s just a very boggling situation,” she said. “We’ll have to hear the facts to help us have a greater understanding of these sort of startling events.”

Mrs Hanna Martin also extended sympathies to the family during this “painfully frustrating” time.

“With all of the factors of this incident, which include the fact that the crash took place so close to the centre of our nation, the nation’s capital, within earshot of… shore and that responders saw a part of the plane above water,” Mrs Hanna Martin said.

“And for that to be shut down, including telling family members - mother, wife, siblings, children - that they had to leave the beach. And then the next morning there was nothing there…I think that certainly this requires some serious reflection on procedures. But we have to know the facts first. And I don’t know the facts. I only know what I’m hearing in the public domain.”

“And in terms of the family, I know that the nation feels with them as much as we can, being outsiders to their experience but feeling very connected to it, because it must be a painfully frustrating, painful situation, when you consider all the factors in this matter from what we know. But I want to reiterate that we have to wait for the investigation to be completed.”

On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said he has ordered a full review of protocols, procedures and agencies involved in air accident response and investigations in the country.