By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMASAIR passengers travelling to North Eleuthera were stranded in Rock Sound on Monday after they were forced to disembark their plane without warning or help with accommodations.
Chaos unfolded as some chased expensive taxis and argued with staff about getting their luggage.
A Bahamasair official told The Tribune the airline would respond to questions about the episode but couldn’t say when.
Dr Kenneth Romer, deputy director of tourism, said the matter prompted an urgent meeting of various agencies, including Bahamasair, the Airport Authority, Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority and the Ministry of Tourism.
“There is absolutely no excuse when any agency drops the ball,” he said.
A plane was expected to travel from New Providence to Rock Sound to North Eleuthera to New Providence, but the first flight was reportedly delayed by an hour and a half, leaving around 4.30pm.
Those who expected to fly from Rock Sound to North Eleuthera were shocked to suddenly learn of the cancellation of that leg of the trip, according to Sophie Melissa Taylor, who wrote about the incident in a public Facebook post.
She said staff initially prevented passengers from getting their luggage.
“I was travelling alone with my two-year-old son, his asthma medication/machine is in the luggage as well as other must have items checked in,” she said. “How do you mean we can’t get our luggage!? And how do you mean there are no taxis available?!”
She said at least five infants were on the plane.
She said it felt like a “war zone situation” when people started disembarking the plane, only to stand on the tarmac demanding their luggage, which staff initially refused to give them.
“If they knew this was a thing,” she wrote, “why didn’t they tell us this before the flight took off, or mid-flight? Or even when we landed and allowed us to get off the plane with ample time like scheduled Rock Sound passengers?”
Describing the experience as dehumanising, she said passengers got their luggage but were forced out of the airport building and into the “cold dark” outside.
She said she and her son eventually rode to Governor’s Harbour thanks to a couple on their honeymoon, where they waited until a passing friend took them to North Eleuthera.
Another passenger who spoke on the condition of anonymity said taxis were charging $150 per passenger to get to North Eleuthera.
She said she had frantically tried to catch a Southern Air flight, the last of the day, after leaving the Bahamasair plane.
She said she doesn’t usually fly on Bahamasair, but started doing as a result of concern about the safety of other airlines.
“People drove down for the flight and they were like, I don’t have nowhere else to go,” she said.
In an interview on Beyond the Headlines on Eyewitness News last night, Dr Romer said the crew skipped North Eleuthera because time was running out and the plane had to finish its operations before sunset.
He said Bahamasair had two aircraft out of service that day, impacting its schedule. He said the Airport Authority also identified “precision approach indicator lights” issues that contributed to the debacle.
“What was communicated? When was it communicated, and most importantly, how was it communicated? We might overlook some of the issues as it relates to equipment, but we cannot overlook the interactions,” he said, suggesting staff interaction with the frustrated customers was poor. “We can control how we speak to them.”
He said officials would retrain staff and put people on the ground to ensure better customer interactions.
“Persons who travel again expect that their travel is safe, and they expect that persons will handle them appropriately as it relates again to service,” he said, adding stakeholders were told to implement a plan to prevent similar episodes.
Comments
mandela 4 months, 1 week ago
The same reason the UN made such a report on our affairs, just look at this, Bahamians are always getting the sh$$y end of the stick, I wish some foreign passangers were also on board to bring shame internationally, because that is the only way our jokey politicians and people who are getting paid for nothing would try and be accountable. Shame on BahamasAir and its 50th anniversary of being the same old same old.
bahamarich 4 months, 1 week ago
OK this is another great example why the Bahamian Government should shut down Bahamas Air. The amount of $ spent on this entity could be used in so many different ways in the Bahamas. I understand the purpose of the airline is to provide service to areas that may not be served for economic reasons. Subsidizing private carriers to accomadate underserved areas would be much more effective use of capital and it is apperaant the the service could not be any worse
Bahamasair (UP, Nassau International) is due to receive another BSD32 million Bahamian dollars (USD32 million) in state subsidies in the 2022/2023 fiscal year, with a further BSD40 million (USD40 million) budgeted for the next two years, according to the government's 2022/2023 draft estimate of revenue and expenditure.
According to preliminary forecasts, the state carrier will receive BSD21 million in 2023/24 and BSD19 million in 2024/25.
This comes on top of the government's actual expenditure on Bahamasair of BSD78.2 million in 2020/21 plus a revised approved estimate of BSD30 million, totalling BSD108.2 million. Expenditure between July 2021 and March 2022 was just under BSD21 million.
By December 31, 2021, the company had arrears, unpaid invoices, and an un-budgeted expenditure of BSD24.2 million.
concernedcitizen 4 months, 1 week ago
Bahamasair has about 100 employees per plane , the industry standard is about 23 .Our civil service is a jobs agency to keep up with our prolific j birth rate .How long can we continue to borrow and tax to afford it .
ExposedU2C 4 months, 1 week ago
LOL. Why should the corrupt Davis led PLP government ensure that Bahamasair is run any differently than the entire country?
Dawes 4 months, 1 week ago
Why did the plane have to finish operations before sunset? It's last flight was to Nassau which has lights, so that can't be the reason why. We will most likely find out the plane was needed for some crony, so to hell with the people who actually paid to fly.
hrysippus 4 months, 1 week ago
If you have time to spare; fly Bahamascare.....
hj 4 months, 1 week ago
If people stop patronizing Bahamasair, then politicians would have no excuse to keep spending taxpayers money to this disgrace. But then again Bahamians are just talk. Who will talk in couple of days about Bahamasair. Junkanoo is coming so the big national affair will be who won.
stillwaters 4 months, 1 week ago
It's sad to admit, but you're so right. We are like dizzy, stupid little children being pulled from one superficial event to another, while the important events fly right over our heads.....unnoticed.
DiverBelow 4 months, 1 week ago
It's referred to as keeping the public ignorance high via poor education, poor reporting, poor services... if you don't expect much, you will accept mediocre service and be happy by the convenient distractions. Educated elite get educated overseas and stay overseas; while those who pay for it, continue to pay & accept mediocrity. The dumbing of The Bahamas at work...
TalRussell 4 months, 1 week ago
I has a question --- Seriously, with fuels costing so much --- What are the chances that all these barrels of fuels' are bought to be used to power all BahamasAir's 15 active aircrafts --- Aren't being intentionally stranded** --- Elsewheres' --- As they's making theirs ways towards the intended destinations. --- Yes?
sheeprunner12 4 months, 1 week ago
Just sell Bahamasair, please.
Set up a plane service that operates just like the mailboat service. The Govt already works with private operators to service the Family Islands. It can work in the air as well.
Allow the private sector to thrive & compete, while keeping airfare prices at a reasonable rate per island.
TalRussell 4 months, 1 week ago
@ComradeSheepie12, create afordale Fares regular MailBoats sailings to the lesser known Towns', Settlements' of the Out Islands that are rarely visited by tourists'. --- Yes?
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