Bahamas News
FAA systems fails, slams 3 hour break on air travel
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#UnitedStates, January 11, 2023 – An unprecedented three hour disruption in flights across the United States on Wednesday morning sent frustrating ripples south to the Turks and Caicos Islands, as the majority of air traffic to the islands originates from the north and the United States.
It was described as a major shutdown of the system of the FAA. The rare technical glitch is now attracting serious questions about the effectiveness of safety systems and the need for urgent upgrades at the US Federal Aviation Administration. The cause of that glitch is still unknown.
Around 11 am, Magnetic Media was on the phone to Arlington Musgrove, the Minister of Immigration and Border Security who confirmed delays had already been recorded for the tourism dependent UK overseas territory and would “certainly result in delays and challenges for those with connecting flights.”
The TCIs first flight unspecified by the Minister was pushed back to 12:35 pm and another, United 1465, had an
inbound delay of 3-hours resulting in a push back to 1:17 pm.
As time passed we got more back to back updates with at least three American Airlines flights pushed back
“AA1900 now delayed 1 hr, was scheduled to arrive at 13:12. AA1527 delayed 1 hour, originally scheduled to arrive at 14:41. AA879 delay 2 hours, originally scheduled to arrive at 14:21.” The Minister shared.
The US emergency ground order came at 7:15 Wednesday morning following what the FAA is describing as an overnight outage. The outage affected the Notice to Air Missions system (NOTAM) which provides safety information to flight crews and forced a nearly three hour halt in flights as the Agency struggled to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.
US President Joe Biden had revealed that they were working to find the cause of the incident but that flights could still land safely if they were already in the air, just not take off. The FAA confirmed this on Twitter.
“All flights currently in the sky are safe to land. Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly. A Notice to Air Missions alerts pilots about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight.”
Though the stop order was lifted by 8:51 and the FAA resumed regular flight activity, the damage was done.
According to flight monitoring website Flight Aware between 7 and 11 am Wednesday there were 4,592 delays within, into, or out of the United States and 838 cancellations already.
More than a third of the delays (1742) and 206 cancellations were domestic.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – The FBI is investigating a woman’s ‘suspicious’ death on a Carnival Cruise ship in February. The unnamed woman and her husband boarded the Carnival Sunshine on February 27th, for a trip to the Bahamas, but she was dead before they arrived in the port in The Bahamas. 
The FBI said Carnival’s team had administered life saving measures when the woman was reported unresponsive, but they were unsuccessful. The body and the woman’s husband were released to the Bahamian authorities when the cruise arrived in the country.
In a statement shared with US media houses, Carnival Cruises claimed the death has been a natural one. The Nassau Guardian said a source told them the police findings had concurred with that assessment saying it was a “normal sudden death of a tourist who wasn’t feeling well.”
The FBI was waiting for the cruise and when it got back to South Carolina on March 4th, they immediately boarded and began to investigate the room based on ‘evidence of a crime.’ The FBI also searched the couple’s car.
No updates have been shared to contradict the currently established cause of death.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – “If you don’t like it, go to another beach!” Is what Aaron John, an Education Officer from The Bahamas National Trust jokingly tells our news team about sargassum blooms; his quip, motivated by the necessity of nature when pit against the notion that there is a real threat when the stinky seaweed makes its annual appearance.
John can admit, he says, that Sargassum isn’t very pretty but life isn’t all about aesthetics and in this instance that ugly patch serves a purpose.
“We love our sandy beaches, but in order to keep them we need Sargassum. When storms come, they wash away all the sand off the beach but sargassum acts as a mulch to protect the sand from water erosion. It doesn’t look good, it
doesn’t feel good but we need it.”
He said it also provides a habitat for small crustaceans, crabs, and insects that are all necessary to our ecosystem and islanders have found use for the weed.
“Historically, (in The Bahamas) we have been using sargassum as fertilizer, especially in the family Islands as far back as I know,” he said. “Birds don’t go on the beach unless there is Sargassum and what do they do? they feed – it’s beautiful.”
He encouraged residents to just leave it be if they came across it.
Sargassum isn’t harmful to humans, except for people with respiratory issues who may find the rotten egg smell triggers asthma. Despite this, it’s not advisable to walk through the weeds which may hide sharp rocks and bottles or vulnerable animals.
Experts say Sargassum blooms began to increase in size around 2011 and have continued to get bigger and bigger since. This year‘s bloom is around 5000 miles long and 300 miles wide and visible from space.
“I know it’s not a general outlook, but I would like to change the perspective on sargassum,” John said, pointing out The Bahamas National Trust is actively working to decrease alarm over the less worrisome events like sargassum as it raises the profile on the environmentally devastating.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos’ Bahamas Diaspora Office is moving closer and closer to opening day, following the Cabinet’s approval for the signing of a lease agreement.
The lease will be signed with FINCEN ltd in the Bahamas. Several weeks ago, Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration confirmed to our news team that the location had been found and was being finalized; now a lease is
approved at the Cabinet level.
The interest in the TCI from TC Bahamians was evident in the diaspora meetings held in early February. The two meetings held in Nassau and Grand Bahama were completely full and over-subscribed by hundreds.
It’s interest which the Government hopes will translate to real life population growth, bolstering the local population before the native population ‘goes extinct’.
The Opposition PDM is on the record with what it feels is a far more viable solution to a dwindling native population; seek out the country’s own citizens and bring them back home.
Cabinet did not state when the office will open.
-
Bahamas News1 week agoMinister Glover-Rolle Delivers CARICOM Statement at UN’s Commission on the Status of Women
-
Caribbean News1 week agoTurks & Caicos inspires and debuts Drake Fashion Line, NOCTA
-
Government1 week agoRight on Cue, Provo Dump burning again as CDB Consultants prepare for Community Meeting
-
Caribbean News6 days agoDebrief on Haiti Caribbean heads visit
-
Caribbean News1 week agoJAMAICA: Persons Encouraged to Purchase Coffee Festival Tickets Early
-
Caribbean News7 days agoTCI native Phildreka Mayham promoted to Learning and Development Manager at BTC
-
Caribbean News1 week agoUK Imposed Procurement Process Slowed TCI getting off EU Blacklist
-
Caribbean News1 week agoHours in Flight Delays; Sketchy Communications system cited as the Reason