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Vol. 30, Issue 11 BROOKLYN EDITION March 15–21, 2019
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Carib governments, airlines ban
Boeing’s 737 Max-8 series planes
By Bert Wilkinson
GEORGETOWN, Guyana
— Some Caribbean Community
governments and airline
operators have not surprisingly
slapped bans on Boeing’s troubled
Max-8 series aircraft from
landing in the region or overflying
airspaces until safety concerns
about its cockpit computer
systems are ironed out.
The cabinet in associate
member, the Cayman Islands,
was the first to not only ban the
high-tech plane from entering
the idyllic tourist island’s airspace
but had also ordered management
of Cayman Airways to
ground its fleet of Max-8 planes
until worldwide concerns about
maverick computer software
systems are convincingly dealt
with. Cayman Air was operating
two of this type of aircraft. Both
remain on the ground.
Down south in Trinidad, the
administration of Prime Minister,
Keith Rowley said stateowned
Caribbean Airlines,
which has already placed orders
for 12 of the planes to upgrade
from its current fleet of 737-800
Next Generation planes, now
has sufficient time to abandon
the order if the situation is not
rectifiedto its satisfaction.
CAL is not expecting any
of the 12 new planes before
December 2019. Officials this
week rushed to assure Caribbean
passengers that their lives
are not threatened after rumors
about the new planes being
thrust into service began circulating
in the region.
“The true facts are that CAL is
not currently flying Boeing 737
Max-8 aircraft. The airline’s current
fleet is comprised of 737-
800’s and these are among the
safest airplanes in the world,”
Trinidad’s Minister of Finance,
Colm Imbert told reporters.
The imbroglio about the safety
of the plane comes in the
wake of the second crash of this
brand new plane in different
parts of the world in the past
five months.
Last October, a Lion Air plane
crashed off the Indonesian coast
just minutes after takeoff killing
all 189 people on board. On
Sunday, an Ethiopian Airlines
plane of the exact type, crashed
just six minutes after departure
leaving 157 people dead.
In both cases, crews had complained
about difficulty control
Garifuna Heroes Festival
Don Cuellar on guitar at the Garifuna National Heroes Day Festival. See story on
Page 57. Photo by Nelson A. King
Brooklyn DA unveils Justice 2020 Reform
By Nelson A. King
Brooklyn District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez on Monday
announced his plan for
a groundbreaking initiative
to transform Brooklyn’s justice
system into a progressive
model designed to keep
Brooklyn safe and strengthen
community trust by ensuring
fairness and equal justice
for all.
Gonzalez said the new
approaches were developed
following months of intensive
consultations with dedicated
committees made up of,
among others, reform experts,
defense attorneys, service providers,
law enforcement, formerly
incarcerated individuals
and the clergy and others.
“Justice 2020 is the first
program in the nation to take
a truly comprehensive and
holistic approach to implementing
a new model of a
progressive and modern prosecutor’s
office in the 21st century,”
Gonzalez said.
He said among Justice
2020’s key reforms to reduce
incarceration and ensure equal
justice for all are: Considering
non-jail resolutions at every
juncture of a case and shifting
toward community-based
responses to crime; establishing
early release as the default
position – not the exception
– in most parole proceedings;
prioritizing collaboration with
neighborhood leaders and
community-based organizations
to provide more diversion
opportunities and engage
stakeholders as partners; and
implementing updated data
and analytics systems to drive
reform and ensure accountability
and transparency.
“Justice 2020 will reshape
the Brooklyn District Attor
Continued on Page 32 Continued on Page 32
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