(Eleuthera, Bahamas) – Authorities at the Governor’s Harbour international airport (GHB) had their daily operations disrupted briefly on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 as they responded to an incident encountered by an early morning commuter aircraft, while taxiing at the airport.
Airport Superintendent at GHB, Mrs. Cynthia Johnson, confirmed that the Pineapple Air EMB-110 aircraft arrived and landed safely at the airport at about 7:30am with ten passengers on board, however, while taxiing along the runway towards the terminal the aircraft developed a flat nose wheel tire and had to come to a stop.
Johnson stated that all emergency procedures were completed during the incident, and that there had been no injuries to passengers, or other damage to the aircraft. Outgoing passengers reportedly did not experience a significant delay in travel, as they were picked up by a Pineapple Air flight diverted from Rock Sound (RSD), South Eleuthera.
Immobilised aircraft near the edge of the runway, with nose wheel off.
Authorities closed the GHB airport to allow for repairs to be carried out by mechanics that arrived at about 8:40am on another aircraft from the Pineapple Air main base in New Providence to replace the damaged tire.
The replacement procedure was completed and both Pineapple Air aircrafts took off for New Providence one after the other at approximately 9:50am, returning the airport to normalcy.
According to airport Superintendent Johnson, there were no major obstructions to air traffic because of the incident. Bahamasair had a morning flight that had been scheduled to arrive at the airport while repairs were ongoing. This flight was held back at the North Eleuthera Airport (ELH) but was able come into GHB at about 10:10am, departing for Nassau at 10:25am – 30 minutes later than scheduled.
