Alexander: Situation under control after aircraft detained

Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der says au­thor­i­ties have the sit­u­a­tion un­der con­trol af­ter an air­craft car­ry­ing sev­er­al tons of pro­hib­it­ed and dan­ger­ous items land­ed at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port yes­ter­day evening.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions in Par­lia­ment to­day, Alexan­der said the air­craft land­ed short­ly af­ter 6 p.m. and was im­me­di­ate­ly im­pound­ed by au­thor­i­ties.

“Short­ly af­ter 6 p.m. yes­ter­day evening, an air­craft con­tain­ing sev­er­al tons of pro­hib­it­ed, dan­ger­ous items land­ed at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port and was im­me­di­ate­ly im­pound­ed,” Alexan­der said.

He said the air­craft re­mained de­tained along with the crew mem­bers on board.

“The air­craft re­mained im­pound­ed and the two pi­lots and six crew mem­bers who were on board, Mr Speak­er, the air­craft has been de­tained for ques­tion­ing,” he said.

Alexan­der said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, in­tel­li­gence agen­cies and mem­bers of the Min­istry of De­fence were con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the mat­ter.

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and in­tel­li­gence agen­cies con­tin­ue to in­ves­ti­gate, Mr Speak­er, and those units in­clude mem­bers of the Min­istry of De­fence,” he said.

Asked whether there was any im­me­di­ate threat to cit­i­zens, Alexan­der said all agen­cies were ac­tive­ly han­dling the mat­ter and there was no cause for alarm.

“All the agen­cies un­der the Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and the Min­istry of De­fence present­ly treat­ed with the sit­u­a­tion. We have the sit­u­a­tion un­der con­trol, and there is no need at this time,” he said.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice lat­er con­firmed in a me­dia re­lease that State se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies were in­ves­ti­gat­ing a se­cu­ri­ty-re­lat­ed mat­ter in­volv­ing a car­go air­craft at the air­port.

Ac­cord­ing to the TTPS, rou­tine checks con­duct­ed un­der the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency un­cov­ered ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties which re­quired “im­me­di­ate pre­cau­tion­ary ac­tion.”

The TTPS said au­thor­i­ties se­cured the air­craft, ac­count­ed for the crew, and ac­ti­vat­ed all rel­e­vant na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty units in ac­cor­dance with es­tab­lished pro­to­cols.

Guardian Me­dia pre­vi­ous­ly re­port­ed that the Ukrain­ian air­craft, car­ry­ing a Eu­ro­pean crew, was re­port­ed­ly en route to Libya and stopped in Trinidad to re­fu­el.

Se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials were alert­ed af­ter con­cerns emerged over the con­tents list­ed on the air­craft’s car­go man­i­fest. Guardian Me­dia learned the crew told au­thor­i­ties the car­go con­sist­ed of in­dus­tri­al ex­plo­sives but were un­able to pro­vide fur­ther de­tails to of­fi­cials yes­ter­day night.

Mil­i­tary and po­lice of­fi­cers were as­signed to main­tain se­cu­ri­ty at the air­port while in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ued to­day.

The TTPS sought to as­sure the pub­lic there was no threat to trav­ellers, air­port op­er­a­tions, or the wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

“At no time was there any threat to the trav­el­ling pub­lic, air­port op­er­a­tions, or the wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. The sit­u­a­tion re­mained calm, con­trolled, and pro­fes­sion­al­ly man­aged,” the TTPS said.

The po­lice ser­vice added that the mat­ter now forms part of an ac­tive mul­ti-agency na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in­ves­ti­ga­tion and said fur­ther op­er­a­tional de­tails could not be dis­closed at this time be­cause of re­cent in­tel­li­gence as­sess­ments and in­ter­na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty oblig­a­tions.