American Airlines flight AA-1127 made an emergency landing in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 25th.
The Airbus A319-100 plane heading from Miami, Florida, to Medellin, Colombia, was diverted after smoke was noticed in the cabin.
The plane landed uneventfully. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
JetBlue flight B6-1675 made an emergency landing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on February 13th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane took off for Kingston, Jamaica, but had to turn back after the crew noticed an issue with one of the engines.
The plane landed uneventfully. All passengers and crew members remained safe.
Swift Air flight WQ-933 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Miami International Airport, Florida, on July 7th.
The Boeing 737-300 flying from Montego Bay, Jamaica, to Cleveland, Ohio, had to divert due to smoke indication in its cargo hold.
The plane landed safely.
All 155 people aboard remained safe.
Virgin Atlantic flight VS-65 had to return and make an emergency landing at Gatwick Airport, England, on March 22nd.
The Boeing 747-400 plane took off for Montego Bay, Jamaica, but had to return shortly afterwards due to a suspected lightning strike.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
JetBlue flight B6-1675 had to return and make an emergency landing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 15th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane took off for Kingston, Jamaica, but had to turn back after the crew noticed an issue with the brakes.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
A small plane crashed in Greenwich Town, Kingston, Jamaica, on November 10th.
The plane, belonging to Caribbean Aviation Training Centre, went down when it was carrying two students and an instructor.
The instructor and one of the students were killed in the crash while the other student was critically injured.
The incident is being investigated.
An Aerolineas Estelar flight, on its way from Cuba to Venezuela, had to make an emergency landing at the Norman Manley International Airport, Kingston, Jamaica, in the afternoon of September 6.
According to the authorities, the reason of emergency landing was an oil leak in the aircraft.
The plane landed uneventfully and no one was hurt.
Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, Leroy Lindsay said the aircraft will remain in Jamaica until the cause of the leak is determined. “They’ll be doing their investigations into what may have caused this oil leak and when they discover it, they will have to fix it and make sure it’s working before it is released. Our people from the flight safety division of the JCAA will have to be convinced that the aircraft is in air worthiness condition to depart,” he said.
The passengers were booked in alternate flights to Venezuela.
A Delta Airlines flight bound for Atlanta had to return and make an emergency landing at Kingston airport in Jamaica, shortly after it took off on June 30.
According to Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant the decision to make an emergency landing was made after a pneumatic leak was discovered in the engine 2 of the MD-88 jet.
The plane landed safely. All 149 passengers and 5 crew members aboard remained unhurt.
Emilio Ebanks, the spokesperson of Jamaica Fire Brigade said that smoke was seen to be coming out of the plane while it was in the air. Durrant said there was no fire in the aircraft.
The Jamaican Government plans to spend US$ 22 Million to upgrade its aviation safety and security infrastructure to bring it up to par with the international standards.
In an interview, Director General Jamaican Civil Aviation Authority Leroy Lindsay said that Jamaica is fully complying with the best practices and standards set by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
He further said that Jamaica has improved by 10 percent from its ranking which was 30 percent in 2007, in terms of compliance requirements. Jamaican authorities are taking serious steps to comply with the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. He hoped that Jamaica will top in the Caribbean countries in maintaining high standards of performance in aviation.
He disclosed that Jamaica will replace all outdated technology in two to three years in the air navigation services and they are planning to have Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipment to monitor satellite surveillance of aircraft by 2017.
He hoped to have Controller Pilot Data Link Communications in place by 2017. This technology is used for automatic communication between the aircraft and the air traffic control systems.
Lindsay further mentioned that they have already called bids for replacement of outdated radar at 26 sites.
Jamaican authorities are adopting environment-friendly measures for airspace in line with the Priority Based Navigation in the ICAO Global Navigation Plan, including Continuous Descent Approach (CDA), and Continuous Climb Operations (CCO).
