Fire Dep’t reports that Montserrat flight was forced to shut down an engine, mid-air, and commends pilot for safe landing

The V.C. Bird International Airport avoided an emergency earlier today, September 22, after a FLY Montserrat flight reported an incident but landed safely.

REAL News correspondent George Wehner broke the story this morning, but was unable to say, at the time, exactly what the incident was.

However, Inspector Lester Bagot, Public Relations Officer for the Fire Department, has since explained that the airport’s emergency response was triggered by a report from Captain Jermilla Jefferies that one of the airplane’s engines had had to be shut down.

Passengers and residents were full of praise for the pilot for her calm handling of the situation and her safe delivery of the six passengers – apparently with one active propeller.

Commendations also went out to the Airport Authority for its speedy deployment of emergency personnel and for alerting the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre.