Sorry, wrong words. I meant to say, “I would be highly suspicious of that testimony.”

My old HC teachers would not approve of incorrect use of English.

Well 199, my mother was a Scottish war bride [Dad volunteered for service in WWII and served as a pilot in RAF Bomber Command] and when I was born, my father went to the Registrar of Births to register me and my Mum’s wish was that I be named after her Grandfather [John Donald MacPherson], but my cousin Rusty had just been born and had been named John. So it was supposed to be “Iain”, the Celtic spelling of “Ian” [same pronounciation]. Apparently the registrar of births, a Police Sergeant, couldn’t get his brain around “Iain” either so he wrote down “Ian.” When my Mum noticed the mistake, she sent Dad back to the registrar, but he got a Pontius Pilate response to the request to change it to “Iain.” He said, “What I have written, I have written.” And that was that until a few years ago when I started writing it “Iain,” in response to a challenge from my mother.

That’s the short answer 199. Works OK for me, no problems. An extra “iota” is cool!

All the Best,

Iain E.

The Barbados Advocate Sunday June 21,2009
Bad weather to blame for low-flying plane
“BAD weather contributed to American Airlines flight 651’s unusually low approach over Simmons Land Rendezvous, Christ Church ….”
It worries me that the Civil Aviation Authority appeared to have taken the pilots word,and thats the end of the investigation followed with the usual apology.
I heard that plane on the night it came in and from descriptions of residents in Simmons Land and Amity Lodge, it reminds me of an incident that I have witnessed some years ago.
On a military exercise somewhere on continental Europe a whole division was encamped on a wide opened section of the training area.One foggy morning around 4.30 am, the whole camp was awoken by the noise of a heavy commercial aircraft scrambling to regain height. The excess thrust shook every tent and cause severe vibrations in every man’s stomach.
(1)This camping area was on old war time military air field.
(2) It was directly under the flight path of a nearby international airport.
(3) The stretched out tented camp was ,regimentally laid out and lighted.
The pilot of this aircraft in that early morning fog mistook the lighted camp for the runway of the nearby International airport, realising his mistake at the last moment and regained height sharpish.
It is my opinion that in the bad weather the night the AA plane came into Barbados that the pilot mistook the lights on the ABC,between Graeme Hall roundabout and Kingsland for the GA Runway,hence the low approach over the Christ Church residential districts,and as he regained height he was now almost parallel with the GA Airport which now came into view, He could not turn sharply then and make a regular landing, but had to fly past, about turn and make a landing.
Most of the plane coming into GA approach the island from Rocklye/Oistins. Simmons land and Rendezvous is somewhat off the normally used flight path.
A further investigation is necessarey to prevent a further occurence.
Did the pilot pulled the wool over the CAA eyes?

It would be interesting to know who makes up the board of the CAA, and how many of those officers were present at the investigation,and when was the investigation was carried out,given the fact that AA651 comes in to GA at between 2200 -2300 hrs at nights and by next morning around 0700-0800 hrs its on its way back to Miami.