By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Digital Editor

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER Bahamasair flight attendant says he was suspended, questioned by police financial crime officers, and ultimately fired over a Haiti flight linked to US$106,000 allegedly seized by authorities in Cap Haïtien.

He has provided documents supporting his account, including a termination letter referencing the cash seizure and an internal investigation.

There is nothing to link the incident with Opposition Leader Michael Pintard’s unsubstantiated claims of multiple passports being found on board a BahamasAir flight.
However, the documents the sacked flight attendant provided demonstrate that an internal probe and police involvement did occur in connection with the March 1 flight.

The ex-employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the saga began when a colleague asked him to take a small bag to Cap Haïtien – something he described as common practice among crew during his three years at the airline.

He allegedly met the colleague at the gas station early that morning and received a reusable shopping bag containing a single passport, clothes and a pair of heels. He said he placed it in his flight bag before reporting for duty, passed through domestic security screening and flew to Haiti without incident.

Upon arrival, he said he handed the package directly to a woman Bahamasair agent on the air stairs.

“We were on the ground in Haiti for about an hour, hour and a half,” he said. “I gave the package to a female agent there and she took it to wherever it needed to go. Then we loaded back up with passengers and came back to Nassau. It was a routine day.”

Days later, he said he began hearing rumours of a Bahamasair worker “on the run” and US$100,000 seized by Haitian authorities.

“I was confused,” he said. “I was like, okay, who is this? I didn’t hear about anybody on the run. It didn’t make sense.”

He said he and his crew were later summoned before the Bahamasair board and asked general questions about the flight — whether anything seemed out of the ordinary or whether they had observed suspicious baggage.

He claims he did not initially mention the bag because the questions did not appear to relate to ‘routine’ crew-to-crew package transfers.

“Because they didn’t ask, ‘Did you take anything?’ I didn’t feel compelled to say anything,” he said. “As far as I was concerned, what I carried didn’t have anything to do with that.”

He continued flying, but said his first sign of a deeper issue came when US Customs officers began pulling him into secondary screening during transits. On one occasion, a CBP officer directly asked him: “So what happened on the flight to Haiti?”

In May, he was informed he would be taken off duty pending investigation after Bahamasair security officers allegedly said the Haiti-based agent had identified him as handing over a package.

He said he then provided full disclosure, including WhatsApp messages showing the colleague’s request. The Tribune has viewed the correspondence.

The ex-employee said he was interviewed twice by police — once earlier in the year, and again in late August by financial crime officers. During the second interview, he said he was placed in handcuffs, held in custody for three hours, and then questioned at the Central Detective Unit on suspicion of money laundering.

“They kept asking me about ‘the $100,000’,” he said. “The main focus of the police investigation was money. There was nothing about passports.”

He claims investigators later told him, off the record, that they believed he had been “innocently brought into” a wider scheme. He was never charged or placed on bail.
Despite this, Bahamasair dismissed him on June 17.

The termination letter, signed by human resources director Zakia Winder, states that his employment was ended “for cause” following an internal investigation into “the discovery and confiscation by the Haitian National Police of US$106,000 illegally transferred into Cap Haïtien” on March 1.

The letter says the investigation found “a major breach,” citing concerns about discrepancies between his initial verbal and written statements, and alleged involvement “in an illegal activity while on duty on Bahamasair property and involving Company equipment.” It says his conduct “potentially jeopardized Bahamasair’s integrity and international relations.”

The employee said he was never shown the evidence referenced in the letter and maintains he was not involved in any wrongdoing.

“I feel like I was just a pawn,” he said.
“It’s no secret that flight attendants carry packages for each other. We do it for managers too… We just do it as a favour. That’s all.”

He appealed the decision with union representation, but said managing director Tracy Cooper upheld the dismissal and refused to share the evidence he said linked him to the alleged smuggling.

“It felt like going to a parent who had already made up their mind,” he said. “I was treated like a criminal.”

He claimed several colleagues later confided that they had also carried packages for the same flight attendant on Haiti routes, and were shocked he had been singled out. One said he refused to carry a bag after discovering multiple passports inside.

The Davis administration has repeatedly dismissed Mr Pintard’s description of a ‘bag of passports’ found on a Bahamasair aircraft. Senior officials say the airline, the Passport Office and police have confirmed no such discovery occurred and no employee was dismissed as a result.

Yesterday, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe said the Opposition has still not met the burden of proof for its “bag of passports” allegation.

In March, Bahamasair issued a statement following Haitian media claims about a US$100,000 seizure at Cap-Haïtien involving a flight. The airline said it was aware of the alleged matter, was taking it seriously, and was cooperating with Haitian authorities, including the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Interpol.

For his part, the former flight attendant said he wants to clear his name.

“I just want this to be treated fairly because I was wronged,” he said. “I’ve never had a criminal record in my life. I never did anything wrong.”

Calls placed to Bahamasair executives and the Commissioner of Police were not returned up to press time.