Page 32 - The Indian EYE 072321

NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline JULY 23, 2021 | The Indian Eye 32

persoNaL storY

My last Flight From jonestown with

Captain George Grandsoult

alBerT BalDeO

t was 1986. As a Magistrate,
I had just finished holding
ICourt in Jonestown territo-
ry, Matthews Ridge and Mon-
key Mountain. I had only been
married a few months with a
newly born, but my duties as
Interior Magistrate had to be
done, and the 4 AM wake-up
alarms, dangers of speed boats
to Bartica skimming the brown
waters, getting to some interior
locations via canoes, bumping
along in tractor driven trailers
across rough terrain, ignoring
the resident ghosts of the guest
houses and flying in “paper
planes” barely surviving the skies,
had to be endured and over-
come. Duty and sacrifice called.
Captain George Grandsoult,
a storied and legendary pilot for myself and one of hope for
who also taught young pilots, them. But I knew...It could have
was said to “know the interior been me, and Grandsoult, days
like the back of his hand.” He earlier.
was taking me back to Ogle I have spent the years af-
Airport. He was the sole pilot ter that near-death experience
in charge of his aging, famous helping others and fighting the
Cessna 206 single-engine air- battles, they are incapable of. I
craft, which was held togeth- spend my second lease on life
er with such rubber bands and constructively, and where pos-
scotch tape. I frantically tapped his shoul- flying tomb. sible, in service of others. Every
The aeronautical legend fell der, and he awoke just as his I have never been so close to so often, Grandsoult’s rapidly
asleep during the flight after 2-seater small plane began clip- death before. We were inches descending plane to the forest-
putting the plane in auto flight, ping the tall trees on a down- away from fatal impact in the ed mountain tops of Guyana’s
a trademark habit he had, while ward spiral to impending de- Land of Makonaima, in the very great jungles would appear in
I sat on pins and needles. Soon struction and death. It made a heart of the empire of many wa- my nightmares, decades later.
after, I reacted to his loud snor- saving last minute spiral ascent ters, a land we call home, but I have always prayed and
ing, and saw we were quickly crucially upwards at the last mo- a part we hardly see or speak hoped, to this day, that Captain
descending to the jungle terrain ment. Grandsoult was cool as a about, but one I was privileged Grandsoult and Emile Khan
below us, over Kamerang. The cucumber, while adrenalin was to see. beat the odds of survival that
plane was sputtering. It was on surging through me. I had escaped death. But an- day, by some miracle.
its last legs, or wings, pardon the I wondered if I would ever other young pilot, Emile Khan, This memoir begs a very
pun. A plane crash was about see my wife and our new born who had just been married and important question. Is Guyana
to happen, and, most likely, we baby again. I made it my duty had a 6-month-old baby, per- doing its best as regards quality
would have both died on impact, to keep talking to Grandsoult ished with Grandsoult a few control and disaster prevention
or eaten alive by the wild forc- to keep him awake during the days later in the jungles of Guy- in aeronautical and civil engi-
es of nature even if we had sur- rest of the flight. For the rest of ana, in an unspeakable tragedy. neering and interior flights?
vived the impact-ants, animals, the 45-minute flight, I thought They dropped out of the sky. Albert Baldeo is a human
snakes, alligators and such em- about death, and my new baby When I read of it in the news, I rights leader and community ad-
perors of Guyana’s virgin habitat. and family. I was trapped in a said a silent prayer of gratitude vocate. Views are personal

www.TheIndianEYE .com