GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Officials at the Ogle Airport are downplaying concerns about a breach of airport security after two small planes left the airport without clearance and landed in the British Overseas territory of Anguilla..

The director general of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Chitranie Heeralall, on Saturday confirmed reports that the planes were removed without authorisation and eventually landed in Anguilla.

Demerara Waves

online quotes the spokesman from Ogle International, Kit Nascimento, as saying that the operators of Oxford Airways — who are eligible to enter airside with their airside passes — entered the airport, were screened by airport security and said they were going to put something on the aircraft. “No violation of airport security has taken place. Every licensed operator has access to his aircraft at any time with his airside passes,” he said.

Nascimento confirmed that the aircraft took off without filing a flight plan with the Air Traffic Control Tower or informing Customs and Immigration, which have a 24/7 presence at the Eugene F Correia International Airport in Anguilla.

He also insisted that the airport security was intact, but that the action was a breach of national security.

“It’s a breach of the country’s security in that they left the country without notifying either Immigration or Customs who are on duty at the airport 24 (days) seven (days per week),” he said.

Early Saturday, the planes took off from the Ogle Airport, leaving air traffic control officers scrambling to figure out who they were.

The planes reportedly made their way through Trinidad’s airspace undetected before arriving in Grenada for refuelling, then later in Anguilla where they were eventually detained .

Both planes were the subject of a court order that prevented them from being flown outside of Guyana.

That order was granted as part of an ongoing case that revolves around the damage of another aircraft during an incident at an interior location.

The incident has raised new questions about all of the arrangements that are in place that would grant owners access to their aircraft.