By Melanius Alphonse
Caribbean News Now associate managing editor
[email protected]
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Four months after one of Fly Jamaica Airways Boeing 757 aircraft, with 118 passengers and eight crew members, crash-landed at Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan International Airport, the Jamaica-based airline with “Greenhart” as its callsign has stopped flying.
Passengers on the Toronto-bound flight, 82 of them Canadians, filed a class-action lawsuit against the airline alleging physical harm and loss of personal belongings, requesting “just compensation.”
A public notification on December 5, 2018 passengers on OJ256/ 09 Nov GEO-YYZ said in part, “We are continuing to work closely with the authorities to identify the underlying cause of the incident. Equally and importantly, we are continuing to support our passengers whose welfare is also our utmost priority.
“Fly Jamaica has begun the process of interfacing with its customers to ensure that, if they have suffered loss, they can be fairly and reasonably compensated in line with accepted principles of international aviation law and our corporate responsibility to our valued customers.”
In a March 29 letter, chairman and chief executive officer, Paul Ronald Reece, said, “Due to our lack of aircraft and the impact that it has had on the company’s financial position, we have no alternative, but to make all employees redundant, effective March 31, 2019.”
