Passenger mixing causes security alert at airport
(CNS): Officials had to handle a security problem at Owen Roberts International Airport on Thursday when passengers on a flight bound for Jamaica but diverted to Cayman mixed with other outgoing passengers in the departure hall. The Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA) said the airline was diverted to Grand Cayman after the runway in Montego Bay was temporarily closed.
According to the Jamaican media, the runway at Sangster International Airport was closed due to an equipment problem that occurred during extension work that had been carried out overnight. This led to several flights being cancelled, delayed or diverted.
One of the airlines destined for Montego Bay carrying some 176 passengers was diverted to Grand Cayman. CIAA officials said that all diversion procedures were followed by airport, airline and CBC officials, and the passengers were directed to a holding area inside the departure hall at ORIA to await further instructions on continuing their journey.
During what was expected to be about a three and half hour wait, some of the diverted passengers ventured out of the designated holding area and mixed with other outgoing passengers. In an “abundance of caution and to maintain regulatory requirements”, the CIAA required all passengers and staff inside the departure hall to exit and be rescreened at the security checkpoint to ensure the integrity of the airport’s security protocols.
“The safety and security of our passengers is our top priority. Upon the detection of the incident, our trained security personnel acted swiftly to contain the situation and initiate the necessary security procedures,” CIAA officials said in a release.
“The incident, which affected four airlines, was quickly resolved with an average departure delay of 40 minutes. We are conducting a thorough investigation to understand the circumstances that led to this occurrence and collaborating closely with airport partners and CBC officials,” the CIAA added.
The rescreening process was said to have caused inconvenience to passengers, and the airport has apologised to travellers for the disruption. But officials said the measures were vital to maintain the highest level of safety for everyone travelling through the airport.
“The CIAA remains committed to upholding the highest standards of security and safety at Owen Roberts International Airport and will continue to work diligently, along with airport partners, to prevent such incidents in the future,” they said, adding that they appreciate the cooperation and understanding of passengers.
The mixing of passengers comes just a few months after the tourism ministry unveiled the plans for the next phase of the airport redevelopment and the outline business case. This second phase focuses on a new general aviation terminal for private jets, an extension of the runway and safety upgrades to air traffic control, but it does not address the problem of passenger mixing.
According to the OBC, the single-storey terminal building at ORIA has presented security concerns because it enables incoming and outgoing passengers to mix. Sorting out the congestion and clearly separating passengers was listed as a priority in the OBC but did not made it into the next phase of the re-development project.
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Category: Local News, Travel
So, why did they deplane in the first place? The aircraft was diverted for a temporary technical problem in MoBay. American Airlines is a US carrier, regulated by the FAA, whose rules say that passengers can stay aboard an aircraft on the ground legally for 3 hours.
So, in anticipation of a 3-1/2 hour wait they deplaned right from the start? Knowing the congestion at ORIA with its regular flights, why were the additional pax immediately deplaned?? Why not keep them on board (with APU running) for the allowed period before shooting from the hip?? Unnecessary situation, could have been prevented with a little commonsense!!
American Airlines didn’t want to spend more dollars to keep their pax on board, stupid local Authorities fall for it and make a mess!
The report is not actually true. I was there what is being said and reported is false. The unloaded passengers were allowed to walk into the terminal by gate 7 and 8. some went up to the washrooms and other walked directly into the terminal food court and got food. They were not directed into a holding area nor was a holding area identified or supervised by any employees of the airport or airport security. CAA statements are untrue as they are trying to cover up their lack of action and mistakes. All said, everyone who came off the plane were very polite and caused no problems that I saw.
CIAA another SAGC run by a pathetic private sector board. Will heads roll or will the chair simply call CMR during office hours to complain.
A board appointed by cabinet. So if you decide to appoint an idiot, an incompetent or a crook to run a board, using public money and resources, somehow its not your fault what they get up to? Got it.
“CIAA officials said that all diversion procedures were followed by airport, airline and CBC officials, and the passengers were directed to a holding area inside the departure hall at ORIA to await further instructions on continuing their journey.”
So is G Thomson lying, CIAA lying, or CNS not accurately reporting what CIAA said? Know which one my money is on.
“The safety and security of our passengers is our top priority.”
Obviously it isn’t, otherwise they would have been left on the plane, or taken to an area of the airport that was actually secure.
how about when the brac plane lands and all passengers are able to just wander past immigration without anyone checking anything???
Because they’re not coming from a different country.
That never happens with international passengers, only with local flights.
Don’t you sell the CBC men and women short; they are excellent at profiling passengers. I firmly believe that most if not all of the drugs that come into the Brac are arriving on boats.
This doesn’t surprise me. The company handling security at the airport is inept. There is a lack of management oversight of staff and the majority of the staff clearly don’t care about their job. The security staff used to be friendly diligent Filipinos now they are surly miserable Jamaicans.
And who owns that company, hmm?
I was there. Worst part about it was the lack of tannoy or PA system. Bobo was literally yelling and no one could hear them. How does that happen? What if this was a real emergency
they are most stupid people as they never went on landslide! they already cleared before boarding! wtf!
This is why the Hon Minister Bryan needs to shelve the expensive private plane parking for his rich friend and focus on extending the Brac run way.If the Brac runway was extended 1000 feet to the east the plane could have landed in the Brac.
in addition the Brac is only 151 miles (according to google) from MO Bay it is much closer than Grand.
Ask yourself this. If Owen Roberts have an emergency and have to close British Airways will have to decide like this plane to return to Nassau or fly to Mo Bay.
Not having an alternate run way to Owen Roberts International in the Cayman Islands for larger planes to land in an emergency is negligence on CIAA and the Ci Government who has an annual budget of 1.25 Billion usd. Disgraceful. Fix this for everyone safety Kenneth. This is a priority.
Spending millions of dollars to extend the Brac runway is almost as inexcusable of an idea as Cayman Airways having 4 brand new 737’s
Brac should be grateful they even have a narrow body airliner even touching down there as it makes no economic sense at all and never will….you are being appeased
All of this is literally pissing money away from areas that would create a much better ROI for the economy of Cayman by a long shot
You folks need to start to understand that your government does nothing really for your long term future only their term in office…..take a long hard look at life over the last 10 years….now try and make ends meet
Change the system of government here and remove barriers for those who can run for office and those who can vote
Your ‘caymanian’ leaders are more concerned with trips to Miami and their vehicles than your future and your children’s future
This system will sef destruct at some point and unfortunately you can’t put the family in a car and drive to another state or province or country
Remove the barriers of the electorate so that you and your cronies can vote and hold office. That then eliminates the last vestige of the indigenous Caymanian because your priority would be what you can do for your people, how you can bring them to Cayman to maximize their wealth with the least barriers.
Would you do anything to support the indigenous Caymanian? (The indigenous who?) They would then be relegated to the fringes with no support or representation. But who cares, at least ‘you’ would be happy.
You are what happens when a person becomes far too comfortable in someone else’s home. Note the tone of your message – “You folks”, “Your leaders”.
The kind of naivete that you’re insisting on is what has us in this position today, thanks to those who came before.
If you don’t have a say in gov’t then there’s a reason for that, like it or leave it. That applies to every country, including the four that I have lived in, with no pressure on the natives to change their laws to allow me to rule over any of them.
If the system self-destructs then let it be, the locals can’t load up the car and drive elsewhere but you will without doubt, quickly find a flight to the next tropical paradise with lax laws.
Got news for you, but the priority of those currently elected is not for the Caymanian people either.
And where are they going to refuel after landing in the Brac?
Why were they let off the plane in the first place? If this happened at a US airport they’d have been kept on board for up to 7 hours with no AC, food or water.
Simply not true. There are rules on how long you can be left on a tarmac without water, AC etc. Stop making things up.
3 hours.
I am not the original poster but I can assure you it is true. I was once on a plane on the ground for fours hours before it took off. We were told it was due to runway changes in Chicago reducing capacity and wider spacing. We were given nothing.
just the thought makes me claustrophobic😔
Rules are often ignored. Example. Delta incident in July 2023.
Also get a sense of humour. See the sarcasm.
I guess they we’re trying to be humane. However Kenneth really need to rethink his runway extension, and his Barbados freebie and focus on safety . Extending the Cayman Brac runway sounds like a good idea. Guess that won’t be done- to sensible!
Extending the Brac runway would be stupidity on top of ignorance.
The fact that they continue to fly 737’s in there is ridiculous…
Extend the Brac runway to where? The ocean that moves to a steep drop off within feet (to the west)? Or to the east which edges on a natural pond and neighboring privately owned land?
Before you say silly things maybe do a little research or go to Cayman Brac and see with your own eyes there is not really an option to extend the runway that isn’t environmentally damaging or completely cost prohibitive.
Mistakes happen. Nobody was injured just inconvenienced for less than an hour.
People appear quick to tar and feather others and constantly whine like hungry dogs.
Enough.
Mistakes do happen, but most people flying out probably missed their connections. Hope they were compensated for the inconvenience.
I was there. No one missed their flights. It was very chaotic with no PA system (why?) but they held the planes a little and let the first flights through security first.
The OP said connections, as in when they arrived in the U.S. they were too late for their next flight. That definitely happened.
An average departure delay of 40 minutes.
If you’re timing your connections from an international flight less than one hour from arrival then you deserve every missed connection. It will at least be a lesson and reminder for every future flight planned.
Bit deprecating, aren’t you. Airlines don’t sell connecting tickets unless they consider there is enough time to connect.
You are confusing the delay with the amount of time necessary to connect. The 40 minutes is a delay in addition – not necessarily the time the passenger (or the airline) allowed in the first place. For example, if AA thinks it takes an hour and a half to connect at Charlotte, so sells a ticket with a 2 hr connect time, and that flight is delayed by 40 minutes and it takes the hour and a half to get through immigration, customs and security, you miss that flight, even though there was a 2 hour connection time. Not the passengers fault at all.
But, the passenger who misses such connection has to pay for their overnight accommodations if needed and those are an expensive added expense at the end of a trip. May have to pay for food if not lucky enough to get vouchers. Tbh, i would have fought to stay another night in GC as I would know a 40 minute plus delay and my connection was toast.
Most of my flights to and from from GC only have a 2 hr connection. I do not remember any time there was longer.
Imagine being perpetually outraged about nothing as a hobby. Miserable lot.
Imagine being so passive that you continually accepted terrible political leaders and sub-par service from a hopelessly bloated public sector workforce.
Then DO something about it.
Someone using language like terrible political leaders and hopelessly bloated public sector workforce probably isnt in a position to do anything about it. Hence the comment about others passively accepting it.
It seems that mistakes happen all the time and everywhere.
So does accountability for them.
“CIAA officials said that all diversion procedures were followed by airport, airline and CBC officials, and the passengers were directed to a holding area inside the departure hall at ORIA”
I guess they need to add to their procedures list: don’t let passengers mix.
So the passengers on the flight – who had already been cleared before boarding their flight, and who couldn’t possibly have envisaged being diverted to Cayman – mixed with the passengers who had already been cleared byOwen Roberts. No one went landside. and that was deemed such a risk that every single person had to be recleared?
airline security is one big expensive joke…
Exactly, I’ve just flown from Heathrow and was mixing with outgoing passenger going all over the world in the departure lounge ! I don’t see the problem.
Trained security personnel- so well trained they allowed the passengers to mix in the first place lol.
Have you seen the hidden departure room for the Sister Islands? Despite being fitted with chairs and a separate exit door, passengers are not allowed into the room until the flight is called for boarding. So you get to walk through it and look at the empty seats. Go figure.
Only in Cayman could using minimum wage imported labour to maintain airport security be considered viable and appropriate. These workers operate in shifts, shuttling between the block factory, the water business and the airport. Of course, it’s not the fault of the workers. The Government boards and business owners responsible are Caymanian.
But their is the beach swim!
And the LA Flight to connect us to the stars!
world class
I must be missing something – the diverted AA plane comes from the USA, where screening is far greater than here, and the passengers deplane and go into the area where passengers leaving Cayman had already completed ‘screening’, but we made them all re-screen.
Why? Everyone had been screened, regardless of the mixing.
reminds me of some of the nonsense covid regulations….
Don’t turn this into a nationalistic thing. Remember how many tourist flowers screen and pick up with unlicensed firearms leaving to he depart back to the USA, after a nice vacation here ! Some might have been licensed firearm holders in the USA but had no license here or import permit. Yet somehow TSA let them thru. Who knows what they could’ve done with the firearms or ammunition they essentially imported undetected into the islands.
10:23 am. lots of times people coming from US on planes got caught bringing in Guns and Drug at Cayman Airport.
Glad we could be of service 😉
Who screwed up??
Airline staff? Airport Security? Stupid passengers? Let’s hear who!!
How hard is it for “trained security” to keep watch over a group of passengers in a separated area?
The bumbling CIAA strikes again!
You don’t have the full picture CBC decides who can legally enter into the Cayman Islands and is responsible for directing those movements.
CIAA own the facilities. However, passengers cannot arrive or move without clear instructions and approvals for entering the Cayman Islands which is the primary function of CBC at all ports of entry in the Cayman Islands. I was there and the situation was sorted in about forty five minutes but was uncomfortable and confusing. Communication between CBC and CIAA must be clearer. CBC officers were smug and rude which made the situation far worse than it needed to be. I reached my destination late but that is how things happen when traveling.
“CBC smug and rude”. Good lord! What a surprise….not.
You reached your destination, but I would have missed my connection.
Remember the ‘intense’ or ‘rigorous’ training these people are always reported to go though. It includes a module on personality removal. Unfortunately low IQ in uniform produces these traits of smugness and rudeness coupled with authority they otherwise would not have.
Who will be held accountable? Oh, wait..
Not Kenny or Rosa as they are busy sucking up to the rich folks!
Obviously our world class Civil Service.
Wait, won’t the new Rosa and Kenny rich people terminal handle issues like this? For all the millions they want to piss away it should certainly help with issues like this.
Dream on. Only the rich and CIG will use that.
another glorious day for the civil service….
#worldclasscluster
“Sorting out the congestion and clearly separating passengers was listed as a priority in the OBC but did not made it into the next phase of the re-development project.”
Of course it wasn’t, but a luxury private terminal was.
Tail wagging the dog.
That is because all the government and civil servants will be going thru the luxury terminal as the general terminal is for all the common folks.
Banana republic airport circus
Yet the best day of your life was when you got your passport stamped in that very same airport.
I didn’t think we had exit stamps.
Actually they do, which means you haven’t left yet.
Interesting observation, given you don’t pass through immigration outbound. When are these exit stamps applied then? Does the airline staff do it when you check in? The airport security staff when you pass through security? The airline staff at the gate? Or is there a CBC fairy that sneaks into your pocket and adds it when you aren’t looking. Perhaps its you that has never left? Actually.