Plett’s Crash Investigation May Result in Regulatory Changes

The investigation into last week’s deadly crop duster crash in Spanish Lookout is entering a key stage. Civil Aviation investigators are close to finishing their work at the crash site where veteran pilot Henry Plett lost his life during an aerial spraying mission. But the probe is not just about what caused the crash. Officials say its findings could lead to stronger safety measures and new aviation rules designed to prevent future accidents. Director of Civil Aviation Nigel Carter says every fatal crash offers lessons that can help make Belize’s skies safer.

 

Nigel Carter, Director, Department of Civil Aviation

“In aviation, we continually strive to make the whole activity more safe. And so under our international obligations as well as our local obligations, we are obliged to carry out a full investigation of an incident whereby either a aircraft hull is lost or there is loss of life. There are other factors that would trigger a full investigation as well but in this instance I’ll speak to the fact that we lost a hull as well as someone’s life. And so we carry out an investigation so as to ensure that we can make those safety recommendations to prevent a reoccurrence of a similar accident. The process is protected by law and is – it is intent not to apportion blame to any single individual or entity but rather just to get to the probable causes, probable cause and other contributing factors that would’ve all come together to create – to cause an accident.”

 

Shane Williams

“And how would the investigation and the lessons learned be used in aviation to benefit the entire industry in Belize?”

 

Nigel Carter

“So the Accident Investigation Unit will make certain safety recommendations and then the Department of Civil Aviation will then analyze it and where necessary implement the necessary regulatory changes or procedural changes to ensure that we sort of plug up that hole and prevent for that type of accident to happen again.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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