Imbert charges: Govt replacing blimp with ‘toy plane’

The Government has sold the blimp and replaced it with a “toy aeroplane” assembled from a kit. Further, the airplane had no insurance, no battery and had not flown for a long time.  This was the claim of Opposition MP Colm Imbert who made the disclosures in Parliament yesterday through a number of e-mails he read from two people he identified as Danny and Eddie. Imbert said in July 2011, two months before the contract was awarded for the Zenith Light Aircraft to TT Air Support Co Ltd, an e-mail from Eddie said “The flight was great. Patrick put together the aircraft yesterday morning.”

Another e-mail from Danny said “Call Jack. Remember the aircraft has no insurance. The keys are under the carpet. Take the battery from the other plane. Remember the plane hasn’t flown for a long time.” Imbert said by September a contract was awarded to the company for the rental of the aircraft for almost $1 million for three months. Disclosing that many years ago he trained as a pilot, Imbert said,“That aircraft can’t hover over nothing. As it start to hover it will crash.” He said the aircraft the Government acquired to replace the blimp for air surveillance is a single two-seater airplane. “The very idea of purchasing it is ludicrous.”

Imbert countered National Security Minister John Sandy who said in his presentation that the blimp was inadequate for proper air surveillance. He said the blimp had sophisticated equipment to intercept communication between kidnappers, in particular. He said because of this kidnapping shot down from 100 in 2007 to five. Sandy, speaking earlier on an Opposition Motion on the systematic dismantling of national security systems and structures, told of his first experience with the blimp. “I had seen it as an air vessel that could become airborne in minutes. I watched about 20 men running with a guide rope to get it airborne. “To come down it was the same thing,” he said to loud guffaws from the Government benches.

He said the first blimp was purchased for over $28 million. He read from a report from the Special Anti-Crime Unit to former national security minister, Martin Joseph, in 2006 stating that the blimp could not operate on a continuous basis because of technical deficiencies. In 2006, the government bought another blimp for over $30 million, Sandy said. It cost the government $1.4 million monthly to operate and crime continued to soar, he said. “Because of the cost factor and its limited success we felt we ought to get rid of it. “Mr Speaker, nobody wanted it. That’s why we had to sell it to its original owners.”