Times of the Islands Summer 2024

ELLINGTON OSBORNE
The response
This was Danial’s first emergency. He had earned his certification
to manage the tower unsupervised less than two
months earlier. But he knew what to do and switched to
the emergency frequency 121.5 in an attempt to reach the
Cessna or any other aircraft in the air in hopes they might
get a better signal. One pilot did respond and briefly
made contact to confirm the Cessna was in trouble and
ditching. When Danial asked
her to update, she radioed
back, “No Joy,” meaning “No
Contact.” Danial went through
the emergency notification procedures
beginning with calling
back Provo Approach and 911
to report a downed aircraft and
the approximate location.
Danial’s supervisor, Captain
Irvin “Porky” Robinson and
the tower technician Gordon
“Chef-G” Wilson had heard
the emergency blare over
the airport intercom alerting
the fire trucks. They radioed
back and rushed to the tower.
Danial told them that the pilot
reported he was ditching 19
miles southeast of Grand Turk. Captain Irvin, also a commercial
pilot, and Gordon went to the map on the wall
and measured out the distance from the airport to determine
the approximate location. They didn’t have much
to go on but used their best judgment to estimate the
plane’s position 14 nautical miles east-northeast of Salt
Cay. Irvin and Gordon then marked the spot with an X.
Meanwhile, the TCI emergency response system went
into effect with further notifications to the Department of
Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME), Ministry
of Health, the Grand Turk Hospital, the ambulance service,
the Ministry of Tourism, the TCI Regiment, and the
Red Cross. Director of Health Disaster, Education and
Training Charlene Higgs took charge of coordinating the
government groups.
The plane crash of the Cessna 340 on January 3, 2023 was first reported to the tower at JAGS
McCartney International Airport in Grand Turk around 11 AM.
This is the Cessna 340 that went down off the waters of Grand Turk with four souls aboard.
An informal response from a network of boaters called
the Grand Turk Search and Rescue Operation also kicked
in. Co-founded by Ed Forbes and Hartley “Bonefish” Squire
four years ago, the association had responded to distress
calls from hundreds of boaters in the waters off Grand
Turk and Salt Cay and made a number of rescues. On
this day, both Ed and Hartley canceled all plans to focus
on mobilizing their band of
mariners to assist with the
search.
At the same time, the
TCI Marine Police, whose
boats in Provo were too
far from Grand Turk to be
effective, contacted the
US Coast Guard Rescue
Coordination Center in
Miami to request assistance.
The US Coast Guard
forwarded the request to
the liaison office in the
SHUTTERSTOCK
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