Yes friends, Jamaica gained international recognition on Monday - not due to our scenic beauty, white sandy beaches, pulsating Reggae music, sports acumen or vibrant culture, but due to the hijacking of a CanJet airplane by a Jamaican, on Jamaican soil.
But as the investigations into the security "breach" at the Sangster International Airport, are winding down, you have quite a few organizations with employees who may have allowed an allegedly deranged Mr. Fray unto the airplane, saying, "It wasn't me".
The persons in charge of security at the airport (MBJ Airports Limited) are telling us - it wasn't them...for as far as they are concerned, their security checks and balances were in place and they worked!
[Yes folks, security guards ducking (hiding under objects) and fleeing from a gunman - intent on entering a plane on the tarmac, is security that works...I wonder if any of these people on MBJ's senior/executive management team had a security firm guarding their houses and a gunman was allowed to enter their homes...if this would be classified by them, as security that works?...hmmmh!?!!?]
The National Workers' Union, the official union of a majority of security personnel at the airport, are also claiming that it wasn't any of their unionized employees' faults that Mr. Fray got unto the plane.
Now the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority and the Airports Authority of Jamaica (two bodies that oversee safe air travel in Jamaica) are saying, "It wasn't them".
So, I wonder whose fault was it?...
How did a man, with a gun, elude security forces and enter a plane on the tarmac and hold 174 passengers and crew hostage?
I guess we all were experiencing a nightmare, huh? (a frightening dream that millions across the world were apparently experiencing at the same time.)
Boy I tell you...typical of us as Jamaicans,huh?...when there is trouble...no one takes responsibility...especially one with such severe international ramifications and one, which as a result, has the media prompting for "heads to roll" for this "supposed" lapse in security...or was it a lapse?
For Minister Mike Henry, the Minister in charge of Transportation and Works, in Jamaica, told the media, yesterday, that there was no security breach...
Hmmh!...I guess we were definitely imagining what we were seeing on Sunday night into Monday morning!...
Stephen Fray was a ghost and all of us were transfixed by this poltergeist's power...for over eight (8) hours!
Hmmh...I wonder if that's what they'll put in the official report to the international agencies who also have a vested interest in seeing to it that this "nightmare" doesn't happen again?
....Huh?!!?
...Will keep you updated re this, as soon as we hear what's in the report!
(I would like to thank abdallahh for the use of his Flickr inset picture of a CanJet airplane,above.)
Gillian
Sources Include
1) Power 106 FM, April 20-23,2009
2) Nationwide Radio, April 20-23,2009
3) Article, "Unarmed guards couldn't stop Montego Bay hijack supect: report", CBCnews.ca, April 20,2009
4) Article,"Jamaica: How did the hijacker get on board?", Go-Jamaica News, April 20,2009
