Tropic Air Pilot Poised to Sue BAA Over Hijacking Injuries, Attorney Says Case Is Strong

Senior Counsel Dean Barrow says that Tropic Air pilot Captain Howell Grange has a high chance of winning if his lawsuit against the Belize Airport Authority (BAA) should the matter goes to trial. Last week, Barrow served the BAA with a notice indicating Grange’s intention to sue for injuries and mental anguish following the hijacking of a Tropic Air flight on April 17. During the hijacking, Captain Grange was stabbed several times by US National Akinyela Taylor. He has had several surgeries since the incident and has been undergoing physical therapy and counseling to help in his recovery. According to Senior Counsel Barrow, the claim is built on the fact that BAA failed to have measures in place to prevent an armed Taylor from getting on the plane. 

Dean Barrow, Attorney: “Mr Grange is saying that the Belize Airport’s Authority had a statutory obligation when you look at the statutory instruments containing civil aviation regulations in this country, clearly there is an obligation placed on the operators of aerodromes or airstrips or airports in this country, and the BAA is very clearly the owner and operator of the airports in this country, an obligation is placed on the BAA by the statutory instrument containing the civil aviation regulations to put in place, to implement and maintain security protocols among other things. And those security protocols include protocols to screen for weapons to ensure that no passenger will be able to board a local airplane, a local commercial airplane, who if such a passenger is armed with a knife, gun or whatever. Because the BAA did not, in breach of its statutory obligations, have in place those security protocols this, in our view, was what enabled the hijacker to board to that plane with a knife and we know what followed thereafter.”

While Grange’s prospects of victory are looking good, Barrow says the hope is that the BAA will settle before it comes to that. 

Dean Barrow, Attorney: “The Corozal / Ranchito air strip or airport, municipal airport, from which that plane took off the fateful day piloted by Captain Grange is very clearly an airport owned and controlled by the Belize Airport’s Authority. In the circumstances we are confident that Captain Granges’ claim against the Belize Airport’s Authority for the damage, the harm, the losses he suffered as a consequence of the hijacking incident will in fact succeed. We are of course hoping that the BAA will not oblige us to go to court, that it will come to the table and try to settle this matter. But in the event BAA doesn’t, we are confident that the courts in this country will find the BAA liable to Captain Grange and responsible for compensating him for the personal injuries he suffered, the harm and damage, the fact that his prospects, his future prospects in terms of employment in terms of ever becoming whole again to the extent where he proceed or resume his profession, the chances of that happening are dubious to put it mildly. And so for both the actual personal injuries he suffered, the post-traumatic stress disorder and the loss of future prospects, we believe that a court will find the BAA liable and will assess what it is that the BAA will have to do to compensate Captain Grange and to try and, as it were, ensure that he is being, the kind of compensation that will be adequate in terms of himself and his family.”

In what has been deemed a reactive move, the airport authority hosted a press conference almost 2 weeks after the hijacking, announcing massive overhauls to security protocols in airports countrywide.