Mystery US military landing in Tobago raises questions

ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

Se­nior Re­porter

Three dif­fer­ent ex­pla­na­tions from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, air­port work­ers, and Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine have raised ques­tions about why a Unit­ed States Air Force C-17A Globe­mas­ter III land­ed in To­ba­go ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

The heavy-lift mil­i­tary air­craft, op­er­at­ing as RCH661, de­part­ed the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port at 5.53 am and climbed to 32,000 feet be­fore head­ing north.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar told re­porters be­fore head­ing in­to Par­lia­ment that the air­craft was as­sist­ing with ac­tiv­i­ty tak­ing place at the air­port. “They are help­ing us with some­thing to do at the air­port,” she said. She al­so con­firmed that Unit­ed States Marines were train­ing lo­cal­ly and stressed that the vis­it was not tied to any re­gion­al es­ca­la­tion. “It’s not a mil­i­tary force as such; they are not here on the ground. We are not about to launch any cam­paign against Venezuela.”

The land­ing of the US Air Force C-17A Globe­mas­ter III came hours af­ter the top US mil­i­tary of­fi­cial, Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen­er­al Dan Caine, met with Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar on Tues­day at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann’s.

Yes­ter­day, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said he had no ad­vance knowl­edge of the air­craft’s pres­ence in To­ba­go and was al­so ask­ing ques­tions about the mys­tery land­ing. “I am cur­rent­ly look­ing in­to it. I on­ly learnt of it in on­line post­ing and What­sApp groups; I wasn’t aware of it. I’m cur­rent­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing it to see what tran­spired, why they were in the space,” he said.

Au­gus­tine said, in a me­dia re­port, he was aware that US air­craft had been in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s air­space in re­cent weeks due to co­op­er­a­tion with the De­fence Force. “I know that they have been in the Trinidad and To­ba­go air­space for a while, giv­en the col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the cen­tral Gov­ern­ment and the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment, but I’m try­ing to get more de­tails.”

The Chief Sec­re­tary added: “Thus far, I know that they did re­fu­el in To­ba­go, but I’m try­ing to get more de­tails as to why and what else tran­spired.”

But work­ers in­side the air­port com­pound gave a much dif­fer­ent ac­count. They told Guardian Me­dia they be­lieve the C-17 de­liv­ered an un­der­ground tank need­ed to com­plete a gas line that was not in­stalled dur­ing the ter­mi­nal re­de­vel­op­ment. Work­ers were seen in­side a cor­doned-off con­struc­tion area.

From an­oth­er se­clud­ed van­tage point be­hind a sep­a­rate perime­ter fenc­ing, Guardian Me­dia ob­served a large mil­i­tary-style trail­er po­si­tioned in­side a sep­a­rate se­cured con­struc­tion zone, next to a small open-back pick-up truck. Men in high-vis­i­bil­i­ty vests were stand­ing near­by as ac­tiv­i­ty con­tin­ued be­hind the fence.

In com­mu­ni­ties near the air­port, res­i­dents had mixed ex­pe­ri­ences. Some said they heard noth­ing un­usu­al. Oth­ers de­scribed be­ing wok­en by the de­part­ing air­craft. One res­i­dent, who asked not to be named, said: “That plane make me fly up around 3 (in the morn­ing) so. That’s when it land­ed. I couldn’t sleep. Nev­er heard any­thing like that.”

An­oth­er res­i­dent, who al­so asked not to be iden­ti­fied, con­firmed hear­ing the air­craft clear­ly. A third res­i­dent said they on­ly re­alised some­thing had hap­pened af­ter see­ing so­cial me­dia posts.

Hous­es in parts of To­ba­go West sit close to the flight path, with nar­row roads and bush­land run­ning up to the air­port’s perime­ter fence. Home­own­ers fur­ther in­land re­port­ed hear­ing no dis­tur­bance.

Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Kelvon Mor­ris said the con­flict­ing ex­pla­na­tions showed the need for a full, clear ac­count from the Gov­ern­ment and the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly. He said mem­bers of the pub­lic should not have to re­ly on ru­mours or What­sApp posts to learn why a for­eign mil­i­tary air­craft was in To­ba­go. Ear­li­er, he called on lead­ers to pro­vide an­swers. “This de­vel­op­ment is ex­treme­ly con­cern­ing. The Prime Min­is­ter and the Chief Sec­re­tary need to come clean and let us know what is go­ing on,” he said.

Mor­ris said the lack of im­me­di­ate co­or­di­na­tion or uni­fied com­mu­ni­ca­tion from of­fi­cials raised con­cerns about trans­paren­cy. He added that both the cen­tral Gov­ern­ment and the THA owe To­bag­o­ni­ans a clear ex­pla­na­tion of the air­craft’s pur­pose and whether its vis­it formed part of any wider op­er­a­tion.

Since Oc­to­ber, the US mil­i­tary has been present in T&T. From Oc­to­ber 26 to 30, the USS Grave­ly, along with mem­bers of the 22nd Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit, was in the coun­try as part of con­tin­ued co-op­er­a­tion be­tween the US and T&T, ac­cord­ing to the Gov­ern­ment. Just this month, the MEU re­turned for joint train­ing ex­er­cis­es with the T&T De­fence Force.