Today is the 50th anniversary of the crash in Montego Bay of the Avianca Constellation HK177 aeroplane which claimed the lives of 37 people, including three Jamaicans. Of the nine survivors, five were members of the crew and four were passengers. The cause of the crash on a rainy day in Montego Bay turned out to be pilot error. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The Avianca plane was en route from New York via Montego Bay to Bogota, Colombia. As the aircraft developed engine problems, there was an unscheduled stop in Miami where three passengers left the flight and boarded other flights to continue their travel. One of those was 46-year-old American Richard Osler, engineer and managing director of Caribbean Cement Company who was returning from a business trip in New York. He boarded a BWIA plane and flew from Miami to Kingston.

At the time the Gleaner reported Osler as saying, “In my opinion generally speaking airlines do not keep their passengers sufficiently well informed as to what is going on. They treat them like schoolchildren. If it is reasonably obvious even to the layman that something serious is happening, all you get is ‘We have a little technical trouble; it will only be 10 minutes,’ and that sort of thing. They are all guilty of the same thing. You can’t get a straight answer from any airline.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

At the time of the Avianca crash 50 years ago, Norman Manley was premier of Jamaica and Dwight D Eisenhower was president of the United States. It was 10 months before John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president of the USA and one day short of a year before his inauguration.

Since the time of the Avianca crash, the three airports mentioned in the reports have had their names changed. Palisadoes International Airport is now Norman Manley International Airport (name changed in 1972, nearly three years after Norman Manley died). Montego Bay International Airport is now the Donald Sangster International Airport (name changed in 1967).

And the Idlewild Airport in New York is now the John Fitzgerald Kennedy International Airport (name changed in 1963). Palisadoes Airport was mentioned because Jamaica’s last colonial governor, Sir Kenneth Blackburne, flew from Kingston to Montego Bay to view the damage. Montego Bay Airport was mentioned as the scene of the crash and Idlewild Airport because that was where the flight originated.

In the article, “How we survived” in the Gleaner of January 22, 1960, a vivid account was given of the way in which some of the survivors escaped death. They spoke of the bumpy crash, of being turned upside down and being suspended in the air only by their seat-belts, of tearing open doors to land in a muddy swamp. But the final sentence of the article is interesting. “The stewardess was closeted incommunicado with other crew members who survived and were not allowed to say anything”. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Then there was a mystery passenger who was killed in the crash . A name was listed among the 37 who perished, but the real person with that name was alive. According to The New York Times, the mystery passenger was wanted in Spain for forgery. He had stolen the passport of a Spanish dentist and switched the photograph for one of his own and in New York proceeded undetected to board the Avianca aeroplane. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The 50th anniversary of the Avianca crash comes as Haiti is in the aftermath of a terrible earthquake. Comments have been made about looting by Haitians. This was very much like the aftermath of the 1907 earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica. The damage in 1907 was caused not so much by the magnitude of the quake but by shoddy buildings. A building code was put into effect after the earthquake.

The adage “Tief from tief is a damn tief” was coined in the aftermath of the 1907 earthquake. Someone stole kerosene oil from a store which was broken into in downtown Kingston and someone stole the kerosene oil from him. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

So in terms of human behaviour and how things are done, what has changed in 50 years? Indeed, one can ask with regard to the aftermath of the 1907 Kingston earthquake, what has changed in 103 years? How can anyone blame today’s youth?

Last week I wrote that for nearly 12 years I have opined that we negotiate with Guyana for the setting up a of a colony for prisoners there. Because I associate the word “colony” with parts of an empire, or with ants or lepers, I mistakenly added from habit the words “for lepers”.

No, I am not advocating that we send lepers to Guyana or to anywhere else. In any case we would not have any to send. The Sisters of Mary (or Marists) of the Roman Catholic Church were instrumental in removing leprosy from Jamaica. And being a Roman Catholic myself, I have used my mistake to “big up” my church. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

ekrubm765@yahoo.com