141 people in quarantine as Canada flight grounded
(CNS): A privately chartered Sunwing Airlines plane which was due to leave from Owen Roberts International Airport in Grand Cayman on Monday afternoon bound for Toronto has been grounded after the aircraft experienced technical difficulties prior to take-off, officials have said. The charter was carrying 141 passengers who are being placed in government quarantine by Travel Cayman until the aircraft can fly.
“We are arranging for the 141 travellers on-board the flight to be relocated to quarantine facilities until the plane is able to depart, on the advice of Public Health,” said Travel Cayman Director Casandra Morris. “Although Travel Cayman is prepared for these emergency situations, we would like to thank the passengers on board the flight for their patience while arranging for their safe relocation,” she added.
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Category: Local News, Travel
My experience: following the aborted takeoff (which was scary in itself) we sat on the plane in extremely cramped seating for at least 3 hours waiting to hear whether the problem could be rectified. There was no food and only water on the plane. Upon learning that the plane was not going anywhere we deplaned and were directed to line up along the walkway outside. One hour passed and as my husband and I are approaching 70 I left the lineup to ask permission to come in to wait when I was told that the elderly and persons with children were told that they could come in. This fact was not communicated to us clearly or loudly enough. When we approached the clearing area we were told we must quarantine for the night and we would be bussed out to the Wyndom. We arrived there, provided with rooms and they would bring us a chicken sandwich. After waiting an hour and because our phone did not work in the room I broke quarantine, left the room and approached the security guard who was stationed at the bottom of the stairs and he escorted me to the lobby. Upon entering the lobby the hotel staff backed away from me even though they were standing a good 20 feet away and advised me that I was not allowed to be down there. However, I did manage to secure sandwiches and was led back to my room. At 10:00 my phone rang in the room and we were told that we should be outside the lobby at 6:00 am to return to the airport. A take-away croissant sandwich, fruit and yogurt was available. We got back to the airport at around 7. We sat on the bus until 8 and were advised that the people leaving on the Cayman Airways flight scheduled to depart at 10:00 would be first to be cleared to check in before we could get off the bus. At 9:30 we were allowed to get off the bus and entered the airport to check in and drop off our luggage and get fresh boarding passes. However, we could not proceed through security until all the passengers on the Miami flight had cleared the departure area so we waited down by the washrooms where there was insufficient seating available. Once through security we thought we would be able to grab some food at Subway (as the charter only provided water for the 4 hour flight) but we were disappointed and upset to learn that Public Health would not allow Subway to serve us. We boarded the plane and left. It should be noted that my husband and I are status holders, fully vaccinated and received a negative PCR negative test result on Saturday. We were told that we could not go home for the night, even though we would be home alone because there was no way for Public Health to ensure we would quarantine there for the night. In other words, we could not be trusted even though we had not left the Island for 2 years and had complied with all the lockdown requirements etc through that time. The way we were treated felt like punishment during most of the ordeal.
If this decision is justifiable (and it’s not!) why are airport workers, taxi drivers and hotel workers not living in a constant state of quarantine? They come in contact with “potentially positive” travelers every day but get to go on about their life as usual.
Let the airlines back in. Open the border!
Do the IBC cargo guys have to quarantine every time?
No, they remain with their aircraft and have no contact with ground crew.
Doesn’t seem fair if the flight originated here in Cayman, after all Cayman Airways pilots don’t have to quarantine anymore!
Did the Sunwing crew and aircraft originate in the Cayman Islands? Only the passengers that came into contact with them right? Figure the rest out…..
There is Alcatraz Island, Devil’s Island, Rikers Island, and now Cayman Island.
You can always leave
I did that last week. Discovered the real world has found ways of adapting to the new normal.
yet you still in here commenting bs lmaooo go live your new life boo.
That’s the whole point, we can’t leave! Every time I book a flight Cayman Airways cancels it!
Did anyone think that this may also have something to do with ArriveCAN (=TravelCayman)requirements and the 72 hour negative test time frame?
It is way past time for Cayman to take a more logical and mature approach to Covid. Abject panic may have made some sense in the early days, but science and practicality have evolved considerably since then, as has the reality that Covid is here to stay. It is time to think about effective management – Cayman has been fortunate to be sure but complete avoidance as a strategy is not feasible for much longer – too many residents are suffering from being stuck on island or stuck off of it, not to mention the economic impact. It is only a matter of time before there’s a Covid case in the Cayman community – do you want it managed by a Government that bases it’s policies on fear and overreaction, or on logic, science and sensible planning for a foreseeable event?
I guarantee there are local cases but we wouldn’t know because they’re intentionally not testing people to keep up this fake bubble. Guess who benefits? Guess who can afford to buy up all those businesses going under? Go ahead.. take a wild guess
No one is stuck. 5 day quarantine is not too high a price to maintain our bubble. Our economy is doing fine. Long term tourists are perfectly willing to undergo quarantine. We just need to adjust the way we do things.
If they would only restore daily flights.
Many people are not able to get flights. People literally are not able to leave. That seems to be the definition of stuck.
There is a big difference between not being able to leave at the date and time you want to, and not being able to leave.
Please find me a flight. I’m tired of refreshing my Cayman Airways webpage.
You’re stuck unless you’re lucky or have deep pockets.
If you get a call that someone in your family is ill, or has passed away, think again if you think you can see them in the next two weeks or attend their funeral.
I’d pretty much call that stuck. I don’t have a problem with the quarantine. But we’re stuck.
Absolutely insane and unnecessary. Cayman has lost grip on reality.
Cayman- the land of the nutters
Cayman’s nuts can’t hold a candle to the QAnon nutters in the U.S.
The nutters in Floriduh are the best. The crazies have officially taken over there.
qanon no longer exists.
Well, the majority of the modern population are first-generation Caymanians and expatriates, Still the land of the nutters?
So if the passengers coming nito contact with the crew meant the passengers then had to quarantine in government facilities whilst the plane was repaired, are we to assume that Moses Kirkconnell and his guests had to quarantine in the Brac overnight whilst their private jet was repaired? Or does it only apply to ordinary people?
Of course not. He’s above the law. This is the Wild West.
There is no proof the passengers that were on the jet left the airport environment whilst it was being repaired, hence no contamination risk to the community if they didn’t. (Similar to the fact the international flights arrive and depart with covid infected people from the same Owen Roberts airport that vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers all use to fly domestically and internationally outbound). The flight was destined for Fort Lauderdale in the US who have their own travel guidelines concerning covid-19.
This is absolutely absurd! Who makes these obscure and completely erroneous and singular decisions? The basis for this decision should be explained and published in a public forum as it seems to have no basis in science, or at least no consistency with the science that has been applied to date, by the esteemed and ever mysterious public health officials that seem to make these decisions on the fly with no consistency or consideration for the mental health and basic human rights of the people that are affected.
The CMO, a man determined to complete his contract having achieved a global record of not having community transmission of Covid, irrespective of the social and economic cost.
Cayman is succeeding, economically and socially. I am very grateful to the CMO and his team. Long may their diligence continue.
Not succeeding economically if you are in tourism, or if you factor in the accumulated pension deficits that government always conveniently leaves out of any discussion about their finances, and as for socially – lol. That’s why NAU is spending more money than ever before, right? Because we are a happy and balanced society? Guess the windows in your ivory tower a little opaque?
The overall economy is doing well. If you were in tourism, why are you not in construction, or training to do something else? Some of the stipends are higher than salaries that were being earned, particularly in quiet season. NAU is overwhelmed, but that is substantially little to do with closed borders (and is in part more to do with borders being too open as we have imported poverty from around the region, in part to feed the tourism industry).
Exactly. Time to pivot away from tourism and if there is a gap in íncome implement small taxes on a range of things or incomes over 100k. Keep the border as it is. Otherwise there will be deaths and lockdowns and kids off school. The vaccine wanes after a few months and the makers are indemnified against any liability for side effects.
And the sensible regulated border. That is what has allowed Caymanian the freedom to move about. The end of this will see a lockdown and kids off school again. If there is a fiscal hole plug it with small taxes or even a small income tax on some of these people who earn ridiculous amounts of money here.
Were these passengers not already in Cayman not under quarantine? Then get on the plane, then deplane without leaving Cayman, where would they get covid from? Is the plane from Canada coated with covid for which these passengers picked up by contact? Pure idiocy! This really shows the lack of understanding, critical thinking ability, and irrational fear over reaction by the authorities. Mind boggling.
Flight attendants, aircrew, air conditioning system etc. The decision is the right one. Either we have a barrier to Covid or we do not. We have chosen to keep the barrier. Done.
So at this stage of the pandemic we are letting flight crew into the country that have not been cleared by the requirements of vaccination, testing, quarantine?
Cayman Airways crew do not quarantine after every flight!
CAL CREW do not exit the cockpit or plane and the attendants wear Hazmat suits. (But take them off when getting autographs and taking photos with celebrities’)
Everytime a CAL flight lands, yes.
I imagine they never left the plane.
I understand what you’re saying but the aburdity becomes apparent once you’ve actually travelled. We don’t quarantine the dozen or so people who come into contact with travellers who come in, (a few of whom actually have covid, by the way), nor do we quarantine taxi drivers who drive all these people IN A SMALL ENCLOSED SPACE with a paper mask but we are worried about flight attendants and plane surfaces?
And flight attendants who are vaccinated and routinely tested for Covid at that.
Airconditioning system. LMAO. Many millions of people fly every day!
So why can Cayman Airways flight crew go to the USA then come home and no quarantine after being around a plan full of people?
This is crazy!
If it was the right one, then why aren’t the ground handlers dispatchers, cleaners and the rest of the people attending to an aircraft that come into contact with the crew and air-conditioning system quarantined?
The explanation is contact with the crew. Did anyone ask if the crew had been vaccinated or taken a recent PCR test? Or does it not make any difference? At the same time we fly a huge contingent from the US army, but we don’t quarantine everyone that came into contact with them during their overnight here. Nor do we quarantine the airport staff who come into frequent contact with incoming passengers and crew. But when you give absolute powers of detention tro people without any need for them to explain ofr justify their use of that power, this is the sort of stuff that happens. massively invasive (and expensive plane load of additional charges from the Holiday Inn) decision, but not justification required.
Why? All the passengers were in Cayman where we don’t have covid, they all had to have negative PCR tests before boarding. Whose stupid decision was this?
The staff the flew the plane in ……. Where were they from? Get it now? This is not an epidemic of the unvaccinated. This epidemic belongs to those that think travel is a basic human right
They think that travel is a basic human right? The audacity!
You’re right. We shouldn’t leave the plantation without the Master’s permission.
8:39 Are you for real? Freedom of movement is a basic human right. This nonsense catering to the fear has gone on long enough. On my last arrival I sat in a taxi cab in clooooose proximity to the driver in fabric seats. I could have had covid. The driver would have been more at risk than any of these people were for walking past flight attendants. This is unsustainable insanity catering to the many uneducated hypochondriacs here. Get over it.
Shut up. Literally, just shut up. If you want to know what human rights infringements are look on your television and see what is happening in Afghanistan. Spend your keyboard attacks for that, not the moderate life saving inconvenience you are being asked to endure. Oh, the humanity!
And as for freedom of movement crap, you understand only Canadians are allowed on flights to Canada, right? (No Caymanians are allowed across Canada’s borders and even Americans who are not vaccinated cannot cross).
This is not true. Canadians, residents and family members of those two categories are allowed into Canada. The same as in Cayman. The difference is that you don’t have to quarantine if vaccinated.
Anyone of any nationality can enter Cayman if they have any family connection here no matter how tenuous i.e. Skylar Mack, or own property. Caymanians with student visas to attend university in Canada have been denied boarding on flights. This concept of Cayman improperly impeding the movement of foreign nationals is nonsense, and needs to stop.
How? There are no flights!
Cayman – 600 + cases of covid, 2 deaths
Well, easy for you to say as you weren’t on board. I’m sitting in quarantine right now after a very harrowing experience and exhausting day..
All of you should come together and file a lawsuit against these morons.
WTF! So CIG/Travel Cayman is picking up the tab? Where’s the accountability?!! Why exactly can’t these people return to their homes to await departure?
What does Ms. Morris know that the rest of the island doesn’t?
Seems like she’s quite confused. Overkill??
As one of the quarantined people, I don’t have an issue with the decision.
But and this is a big but, it was abundantly clear that they had no contemplated what would need to be done if a scheduled flight did not depart.
Staff at the airport did a fairly good job making it up as they went along but this really is something that could have been planned for.
If it had been a Cayman Airways flight or BA would they have done the same?
You decided to travel during a pandemic. You chartered a plane. Plan went wrong. And now you want to point fingers ….. this is such typical thinking of the entitles. Queue the complaints …
Talking of the entitled – did Moses quarantine when his private charter went wrong? Or is that unfair finger pointing too?
I’ve got news for you. The rest of the world is operating. People are living their lives albeit taking precautions based on their own risk tolerances. Cayman is nearly unique in the world. The pandemic isn’t ending any time soon. Will you continue to vilify people for trying to carry on with their lives 18 months later? Will you continue to call people entitled one year from now? Two? People have ailing family members abroad. People need to get an education. Not everyone is on holiday.
If you have lived your whole life in Cayman and don’t have a job that depends on tourism revenue (or are getting paid more now with the stipend and any other side jobs than you previously earned), then its entirely understandable why you think people who want to travel are “entitled”. Of course it doesn’t go the other way – god forbid you should think that holding the rest of the island hostage in order to minimise your exposure is in anyway entitled.
Your not hostage you are free to leave, once you have quarantined. You have obviously been exposed so you should be quarantined in this world wide plague. I can’t believe the government would be so stupid as to open borders on October 9 just because some people are inconvenienced staying in their homes for 5 days. Either that or misplaced optimism on the efficacy of this experimental gene therapy. There are MDs who have tested themselves after the vaccine and found all their antibodies gone after 4 months.
Absolutely disgraceful comment. People like me, a resident in cayman for 10 years and foible vaccinated since February, deserve to have free travel abroad by now. Cayman is living in no mans land. Worst covid strategy known world wide: we are an embarrassment. Open up. People like you think covid will
Never spread in caymans community and the pandemic will end in a few years. You are mad.
Can thank the government for not allowing Cayman Airways to fly our own people!
Agree. I’m not arguing with the government’s decision to maintain quarantine to keep covid out. In fact, I’m for changing the 5 day back to 10. That said, there should be more flights available for people who need to come and go. If they have a place to quarantine it doesn’t cost the government and allows residents to get on with their lives. There should have been no reason for that charter. If there were two or three more scheduled flights a week out of here nearly all those people could have arranged their own connecting flights in the US.
Message from HSA – 100% vaccinated is not enough! This includes the pilots and crew.
Unless they work for Cayman Airways. In which case its fine.
Maybe the charter crew is vaccinated but it is not “securely verifiable”…
So they are put in quarantine because they were in contact with the crew for 10 minutes, all wearing masks, and probably tested regularly. You have to be kidding. We need to move on, and this is ridiculous.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Why can’t they just go home until the plane gets fixed, likely tomorrow? Government quarantine? They are probably all double jabbed.
I wonder what COVID regulation applies to people who did not leave the country and then must be quarantined. All negative PCR tested. Sounds like unlawful detention?..
They were potentially exposed. Quarantine is the right call.
How?
Exposed to what? It is getting crazier and crazier every time I read the news.
Wait. What!?
They are making it very difficult to leave prison island… and even more difficult to get motivated to return.
As one of the passengers on the plane I can say that Travel Cayman was clearly not prepared to deal with this situation. It was complete chaos.
Wait till you go abroad and see that people are actually living and and not cowering in fear of what is presented by the media.
You will also see that people are dying.
A miniscule percentage of deaths are among the vaccinated.
Sorry, I only saw the living. Although I must admit I saw many beggars and people hungry on the streets of Chicago, New York and Boston. Not saying Covid isn’t real, but it certainly doesn’t deserve the fear level we give it, especially when we don’t give a damn about the hardships our fellow man has to endure because of thinkers like you.
I am seeing a lot of living people here in the UK. Going about their lives and taking sensible precautions.
This is perhaps the most ridiculous overreaction yet.
Oh no! They all had to stay one night for free at hotels while their chartered plane underwent repairs. What a tragedy 😢
I don’t think that’s the issue – although it sounds as though it was stressful for everyone, and students etc are no doubt anxious about making it back to school on time, and I feel very sorry for them – as much as it makes clear the mindset of those making decisions about our covid policy.
Aren’t we supposed to be moving towards relaxing the policies and procedures and gradually accepting of the associated risk, given our very high vaccination rates? Pah!
This is up there with the “offence of collecting an item left outside the home of someone in quarantine even if you made sure there was no person to person contact” nonsense.
Are we going to do this everytime a flight doesn’t go.
I know Cayman Airways has new planes now but it isn’t like this was uncommon in the past.
Or do CAL flights not count, after bringing in a boatload of people from Miami earlier in the day the crew can go home and stop at Foster’s on the way.
If you think about the risk profiles here this is a serious over reaction and waste of everyone’s time as well as Government $ and other resources.
That’s not the issue. $600 flight change fee for the adjusted connection, lost hotel room, etc.
“Perhaps” you do not understand what was said in the article.
How about more details on the crew of Moses’ plane?
How about more details on who paid for Moses flight, and what it was for. Essential travel my eye.
NO