NewsWhore
12-18-2008, 03:20 PM
The disappearance of a private plane with 11 passengers on board has opened a can of worms about the lack of controls on private flights at Dominican airports. Jose Tomas Perez, director of the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC) said a commission would be studying the disappearance of a plane that took off from Santiago's Cibao International Airport on Monday. The pilot, Adrian Jimenez, reported an emergency near West Caicos but the US Coast Guard has not been able to find any trace of the flight and is searching for the black box.
Migration director Jose Anibal Sanz Jiminian explained that upon review all the passengers on board had valid visas to fly to the Turks and Caicos and if their final destination was the US the Dominican authorities has no jurisdiction over that.
Perez says the commission would investigate whether the airport in Santiago has any responsibility in the case of the missing plane.
Perez confirmed that the pilot had a license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US, and that since he was on a private and not commercial flight, different safety check requirements applied. There are contradicting reports on his license, though. The local press has reported that Jimenez only had a student license that would not have allowed him to transport passengers.
Yesterday, Major General Carlos Altuna Tezanos said that one of the reasons pilot Adrian Jimenez had his Dominican license cancelled in 2002 was for people smuggling activities. At a press conference yesterday, the administrator of the Cibao airport said that pilot Adrian Jimenez had been using the terminal to fly to different destinations for the last four months. According to Diario Libre sources, it was determined that in the last five years Jimenez has smuggled some 400 people to different destinations.
Lieutenant General Pedro Rafael Pena Antonio says there should be a penalty for those who allowed Jimenez to take off with passengers while flying on a student license, as reported in Hoy.
Diario Libre reports that pilot Jimenez is a former second lieutenant of the Army, former Navy pilot and former Air Force cadet. He was supervisor for the southwest in Barahona, under the National Department of Investigations. He is also being investigated for the murder of IDAC official Angel Christopher Martinez.
A BBC news report lists all the inconsistencies in the flight:
"A flight plan indicated it was to land in the Bahamas, said Santiago Rosa, aerial navigation director for the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute.
But the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the plane disappeared shortly after taking off from Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, south-east of the Bahamas.
A Turks and Caicos police spokesman said airport authorities had no record of the plane landing in Providenciales.
US Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena said that relatives of those on board had said the passengers' final destination was New York.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said: "There are still a lot of unanswered questions here."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7787600.stm
As reported in Hoy, two days ago Jimenez was piloting another airplane that suffered problems that interfered with a JetBlue flight at the Santiago International Airport. Hoy reported that Jimenez was piloting a private plane belonging to PLD deputy Juan de Leon.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
Migration director Jose Anibal Sanz Jiminian explained that upon review all the passengers on board had valid visas to fly to the Turks and Caicos and if their final destination was the US the Dominican authorities has no jurisdiction over that.
Perez says the commission would investigate whether the airport in Santiago has any responsibility in the case of the missing plane.
Perez confirmed that the pilot had a license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US, and that since he was on a private and not commercial flight, different safety check requirements applied. There are contradicting reports on his license, though. The local press has reported that Jimenez only had a student license that would not have allowed him to transport passengers.
Yesterday, Major General Carlos Altuna Tezanos said that one of the reasons pilot Adrian Jimenez had his Dominican license cancelled in 2002 was for people smuggling activities. At a press conference yesterday, the administrator of the Cibao airport said that pilot Adrian Jimenez had been using the terminal to fly to different destinations for the last four months. According to Diario Libre sources, it was determined that in the last five years Jimenez has smuggled some 400 people to different destinations.
Lieutenant General Pedro Rafael Pena Antonio says there should be a penalty for those who allowed Jimenez to take off with passengers while flying on a student license, as reported in Hoy.
Diario Libre reports that pilot Jimenez is a former second lieutenant of the Army, former Navy pilot and former Air Force cadet. He was supervisor for the southwest in Barahona, under the National Department of Investigations. He is also being investigated for the murder of IDAC official Angel Christopher Martinez.
A BBC news report lists all the inconsistencies in the flight:
"A flight plan indicated it was to land in the Bahamas, said Santiago Rosa, aerial navigation director for the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute.
But the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the plane disappeared shortly after taking off from Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, south-east of the Bahamas.
A Turks and Caicos police spokesman said airport authorities had no record of the plane landing in Providenciales.
US Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena said that relatives of those on board had said the passengers' final destination was New York.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said: "There are still a lot of unanswered questions here."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7787600.stm
As reported in Hoy, two days ago Jimenez was piloting another airplane that suffered problems that interfered with a JetBlue flight at the Santiago International Airport. Hoy reported that Jimenez was piloting a private plane belonging to PLD deputy Juan de Leon.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)