Indians to leave Jamaica this morning following flight delay
Published:Tuesday | May 7, 2024 | 9:42 AM
Scores of Indians who were brought to the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) in Kingston on Monday for repatriation are yet to leave the departure lounge, with their flight now set to leave at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday.
The group, which arrived in Jamaica last Thursday under controversial circumstances, have now been inside the NMIA for more than 24 hours.
They were to have departed Kingston some time after 6 a.m. Tuesday, but that time has been revised.
Gleaner sources have confirmed that there are issues surrounding a flight plan as well as ports of entry.
"The crew is making it difficult for us. They are saying it is not their responsibility to provide return service. The job was to just drop them here and leave," one Gleaner source disclosed.
Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority Chairman Oscar Derby told Radio Jamaica's Dionne Jackson Miller on Monday that the crew were being given sufficient rest time.
Further, he said that local authorities had not been able to communicate with USC Aero's management up to that point because of a time zone difference.
USC Aero is the German-registered company which operated the chartered flight that took the Indians to Jamaica.
The Ministry of National Security confirmed that 253 people came in on the flight, the majority them Indians.
The figure also includes the German crew, at least one French national, an Uzbek and a Russian.
The latter two were not captured on the flight manifest.
The police are investigating a possible human smuggling operation and whether a sum was paid to facilitate transit through Jamaica.
Gleaner sources have indicated that some of the Indians were headed to Nicaragua with hopes of working on a major housing development project and some were headed to Canada.
More to come.
- Kimone Francis
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