CAL says damaged plane back in service
(CNS): The national flag carrier said that a damaged Boeing 737-300, which it believes was hit while at JFK in New York, was expected back this past weekend. The aircraft had been out of service for two weeks, fuelling scheduling problems and delays. However, Cayman Airways said Friday that the plane had been off-island at the airline’s heavy maintenance provider, undergoing a structural repair on its fuselage. The damage was spotted on Sunday, 15 July, by CAL maintenance in New York and officials suggesting the plane was damaged there overnight while it was parked.
The damage was described as consistent with the impact of an airport ramp vehicle or an item of ground support equipment, and an investigation into when and how the aircraft was damaged has been in progress, the airline stated in a release.
Explaining the impact of the damaged aircraft on delays, officials said the airline could not secure a temporary aircraft to cover the damaged plane’s routes, so CAL had been operating an aircraft short for the last two weeks, leading to a number of delays, which continued through this weekend.
“Irregular operations and delays are never pleasant for our valued passengers, nor for our
dedicated staff and crew,” said Cayman Airways President and Chief Executive Office, Fabian Whorms. “But it is particularly frustrating when it was caused by our aircraft being hit by a third party while parked on the ground.
“The team at Cayman Airways has spent many hours working on alternate schedules and arrangements to ensure that all of our passengers got to their final destination and we certainly appreciate the patience and understanding of our customers over these two busy weekends. By Monday July 30 we expect to have operations fully back to normal.”
Category: Local News
Didn’t pay the union?
Things happen but what i find frustrating is that CAL cancels my flight on Friday but doesn’t tell me. I have to find out about it via Facebook. If i hadn’t i would have turned up at the airport and then been told that there was no flight. The customer service rep said that they had emailed everyone, well clearly not. Not what i would expect from an airline. The reason i went with CAL was for that particular flight.
Heyyyyy this is New York. Fagedaboudit.
Wow we really have some conspiracy theorists living here, OMG!!!
Get a life folks, not everything was done just to rip you off, these things happen every day at every airport around the world, why? Because airports are run by human beings.
questions worth asking what happened to security? What if it was maliciously done? CCTV? If a genuine accident, aren’t these types of incidents mandated by law for accidents or damage to an aircraft to be reported? The nonchalant behavior by the CAL heads appears they know more than what is being said?
Nonchalant? I do not think you really have a clue what goes on day to day within the airline business. This is not stocking shelves in a supermarket.
“Believes it was hit in JFK”, do they not know when it occurred?. Maybe the pilots should be questioned.
Foolishness. The pilots wont know what happened, as they were probably sleeping at a hotel when it occurred.
The story clearly indicates that the plane was damaged as it was parked at JFK overnight.
Maybe YOU should be questioned… About using common sense.
6.33pm The wording is “suggested”, not that it “was” damaged overnight. Maybe you should be questioned on your powers of reasoning.
Hitting the rum punch after landing I presume.
These things happen everyday around the world. And not all ground handling agents are eager to admit that they had an accident in fear of getting fired or having to pay the bill over the remainder of their working lives. Aircraft damages come with high bills!
With all the maintenance providers in and around New York why was time and money wasted sending the plane to Costa Rica? If the aircraft was damaged but able to fly the damage could not have been bad.
If the airplane was repaired in New York, that would have saved money and time, but that is a foreign concept to CAL management.
In New York…. sure.
I would have thought the traveling public would have been informed before now.
Presumably CAL will seek compensation for repairs and down time from whatever entity is responsible for damaging the aircraft, whether it be New York Port Authority (which operates JFK), JFK Operations Department, CAL’s own ramp services contractor/handler, fuel supplier, lav services contractor or whomever……
……….or will Cayman Islands taxpayers have to foot that bill too??
CNS, can you please ensure to follow-up on this so that the public is informed! Thanks.
In case you weren’t aware already but the cayman tax payer covers most of cayman airways costs. I think it’s about time the real numbers are made public….
yawn…the usual incompetence…
cayman airways = 5 star price for 2 star quality…
CAL passengers have long ago gotten used to this, most of them don’t complain as they are travelling on non revenue tickets.
Seriously? They must have CCTV all over the place at JFK. Send the bill to whoever is responsible.
Unless it happened in Cayman and no one reported it…
Have we been misinformed? Was it not to cover such eventualities that the very expensive new 737 was leased, so that there would be five planes to cover a four plane schedule?
Great catch to all involved. This incident highlights the importance of the preflight check aka “walk around”.
Why wait two weeks after the incident to let the public/valued customers know what caused the delays. I put the late notification to management incompetence. Had your valued customers known the facts, I am sure they would’ve been very sympathetic known it was a careless act of a third party. All they knew was flights delayed for hours. Give better information and maintain customers confidence.
So a parked plane at JFK is hit by ground equipment with enough force to cause visual damage and nothing is reported to the airline or airport authority? There are cameras everywhere around the gates. Should be easy to solve. Unless of course something else caused the damage.
Maybe a runaway shopping trolley.
Probably an MLA no less!