“I did not panic” – injured Police Constable recalls

Airplane crash at Canal #2 Polder

Constable Mark Grimmond, who on Monday last survived an airplane crash at Canal Number Two Polder, West Bank Demerara, is recuperating well at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Georgetown.
On Friday, Police Commissioner Leslie James, accompanied by Deputy Commissioners Paul Williams, Maxine Graham, Nigel Hoppie, Lyndon Alves and other officers of the Guyana Police Force, visited Grimmond and commended him for his bravery.
“You have displayed much bravery, and you will be commended after your full recovery. If wasn’t for you, we would not have known about the whereabouts of the crash. You are a hero, you are brave, and God be with you,” James told the rank.
The Constable, who is stationed at the Eteringbang Police Outpost in Region Seven, related that prior to the incident, the plane was in the process of sinking towards the ground, and this prompted him to secure his seatbelt as tight as possible. He said it was one of the reasons he survived.
“While the plane was in the process of downing, I did not panic. I kept my composure and pulled my seatbelt as tight as it could have gotten. As the plane fell into the bushes, and after the impact, the body that was in the plane at the time came into direct contact with me, and I pushed the body off as the plane came to a halt,” he recalled.
Without giving up, Grimmond said, he used his belt to climb a tree to access signal and relate what had transpired.
“After that, I tore my shirt and wrapped it around my injured face, and proceeded to kick open a window. And while exiting, I suffered more injuries about my body. As I got out of the plane, I used my Police belt to climb a very huge tree to see if I would get any signal. In the process, I used my earpiece, and after finding signal, as my phone battery was approaching low, I called my sergeant and my wife and told them of the ordeal,” he said.
From then on, he assisted the pilot in shooting flares, which indicated a distress call.
The Cessna 182 aircraft bearing registration number N8704T, owned and operated by Guyana Adventist Medical Aviation Services (GAMAS), crashed on Monday evening. The crash has left Grimmond and the pilot, Lincoln Gomez, injured.
It was reported that the duo was transporting the body of the Director of Kaikan Bible School, Christopher Matthews, who died on Monday last after falling from a mountain at Arau in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
The aircraft departed the interior location at 17:06h, and was heading to the Eugene F Correia International Airport when the pilot made a “mayday” call to the Timehri Control Tower reporting a fuel emergency at about 18:45h.

The Aeronautical Search and Rescue Coordination Centre at Timehri was activated with assistance from the Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Police Force, the Civil Defence Commission, GCAA, Guyana Fire Service and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority.
The crash site was identified by a reconnaissance flight conducted by a Roraima Airways aircraft after Captain Gomez had fired one of his distress flares from his location.
After several hours, the rescue team recovered the injured pilot and the policeman; and after stabilising them, returned to the landing zone for evacuation with the Bell 206 helicopter. The injured men were flown to Camp Ayanganna and subsequently transported to the hospital.
However, the body of Matthews could not be removed from the site during the first extraction due to constraints of terrain and weight. His body was flown out of the site on Tuesday.