The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FURLOUGHED Flamingo Air employees are searching for new jobs and considering launching their own businesses as uncertainty deepens over whether the airline will resume operations following last month’s fatal crash.

Workers told The Tribune they were relying largely on savings while awaiting further word from the airline, whose Air Operator Certificate was temporarily suspended after one of its aircraft crashed near San Andros Airport on July 10, killing all ten people on board.

Thirty-five employees were furloughed after the suspension, pending the outcome of the investigation.

One employee said she was waiting to receive unemployment assistance from the National Insurance Board.

“We haven’t received anything yet. We were just filling out forms and getting our documents,” she said.

Although the suspension has left workers in limbo, some said they were using the uncertainty to consider new career paths.

“I’m quite fine. I’ve actually been looking into avenues to do my own thing so I don’t know if this is the avenue here,” one employee said.

Another worker said she had not yet secured alternative employment and remained unsure about the airline’s future.

“I have not found a job as yet,” she said. “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on.”

The employees said they had received no further updates from Flamingo Air but remained hopeful that the carrier would eventually return to service.

Before the fatal crash, Flamingo Air had been involved in at least 14 publicly documented accidents and safety incidents over the past two decades.

Energy, Utilities and Aviation Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis previously said she could not explain why the airline’s certificate had not been suspended earlier despite those incidents.

Aviation authorities expect to publish a preliminary report on the July 10 crash on or before August 10.