Mass exodus at international airport
Buses and boats were not the only means of transport hard at work today. Local airlines ferried people off San Pedro and Caye Caulker, while many tourists opted to leave Belize altogether … if they could find a seat on a plane. Ann-Marie Williams, on special assignment for News Five, checked out the scene at the P.G.I.A.
Ann-Marie, Reporting
Close to one thousand passengers, mostly tourists, descended on the Philip Goldson International Airport this morning wanting desperately to leave town before the arrival of Hurricane Dean.
These visitors who have decided to cut short their vacation, business trips and even honeymoons have packed up their suitcases and made their way to the airport, many of them uncertain as to whether they could get a set on a plane. For a group of students visiting Belize for the first time from the University of Chicago, Dean’s timing couldn’t be worst.
Tashfeen Ahmed
“Sixteen of us were here on a business school trip. We just wanted to have some fun, sun, chill out, not do a whole lot. We were supposed to leave on Sunday, but there’s apparently a hurricane, and that’s not good, apparently. So, we’re gonna leave today, hopefully.
This honeymoon couple is hoping they too can leave.
Sandy Haberny, Tourist on Honeymoon
“Yea, they evacuated the island. We were on Coco Plum and they evacuated us about five o’ clock this morning. So, we woke up at the crack of dawn, packed up everything up into the boats, headed out to Dangriga. And then, we’re looking to see now if we can get standby to get a flight back today.”
Emily Rozes, Tourist from Rhode Island
“Well, I was here doing a service trip for I.S.L., International Service Learning, we’re a medical team, and we were supposed to be here for two weeks, we were supposed to leave on Saturday. But since the hurricane obviously came, everybody’s leaving early. So, I’m scheduled to leave on Saturday, but I don’t know, we’ll see, hopefully I get on a flight.”
Sarah Sullivan, Tourist from Virginia
“We had a Delta flight prescheduled to leave today at twelve thirty-five, and we checked in earlier this morning with Delta and it wasn’t cancelled, and then about an hour later, nine o’ clock, we found out it was cancelled. So we went ahead and came to the airport and they’re trying to get us on another flight, but that flight leaves at eleven fifty and we’re on standby, so we don’t think we’re gonna make that flight.”
Lois Cunningham, Tourist from Philadelphia
“I was staying here until Saturday on the island and in Belize City, and then we were going out to Ambergis Caye for a vacation, to Aquamarina Suites, and we were heading back Saturday coming up. But with the hurricane coming, they told us not to go out to the cayes, to wait here, and then now, they’re getting ready to take people out of our hotel. So, now we’re heading back to Houston and tomorrow we’ll catch a flight into Philadelphia.”
Linzey Wyett, Student from Virginia
“My dad told me he was going to try and fly down here and help protect me I guess, and he couldn’t even get a flight down here. And so he’s real happy I’m getting a flight out but so far, I’m getting to Miami, but I don’t know how I’m gonna get home from there yet.”[laughs]
Ann-Marie Williams
“You were going to the beach you told me?”
Linzey Wyett
“We were supposed to go to the beach on Thursday, to Placencia, and not anymore I guess.”[laughs]
“And to accommodate the scores of passengers who want to leave Belize just in case Hurricane Dean bears down on us, American Airlines has put on an extra flight which is scheduled to leave for the U.S. this evening at five-fifteen.”
“According to American Airlines General Manager Luis Alpuche, his company’s two regular flights to Miami, plus the Dallas leg and the extra Miami flight for today will move some six hundred passengers out of Dean’s way.
Taca’s Operations manager Rudolph Coye, says their schedule remains the same with a carrying capacity of one hundred seventy passengers, while Continental has added a larger carrier, stepping up their load to two hundred seventy nine seats, all of which were already booked solid.
Although Dean has not yet made landfall both American and Continental airlines have already cancelled all flights in and out of Belize for tomorrow, although the airport may remain open.
Russell Manzanero, Deputy Dir. Civil Aviation Dept.
“We me this morning with the international carriers and the local carriers and both of the international carriers have decided to cancel their flights for tomorrow because they expect the weather to deteriorate at night and then there won’t be flying to Belize. But we, as I said before, it depends on the weather later in the day.”
“We have our air traffic controllers who have been asked to be on standby if anything, we will be able to call them to come to work tomorrow, we will do that. As we said, we have to be ready for any kind of emergency that we might expect, for any relief, if it gets worst at night.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Give me a background as to closure in terms of the type of wind that will be coming and how much damage it will pose to an aircraft in the sky.”
Russell Manzanero
“For the local/domestic aircraft that operating to Belize like for aircraft with tropic and Maya Island Air, we decided that they can land into cross winds of a maximum of thirty knots, but for local carriers, we don’t have that information, but it depends on the pilot who makes the last edition, if he wants to land in bad weather.”
For up to the minute flight information, please call the individual airline offices at the airport on Tuesday.