Tomas Dionisio Parra Segura, aero-navigability inspector at the Cibao International Airport (STI), who was fired following a Dominican Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC) probe into how a pilot with a cancelled license and a criminal background was allowed to take off from the airport with 11 passengers on board, says he has been made the scapegoat in the case. He visited Diario Libre to tell his story and said that he has not been able to meet with IDAC director Jose Tomas Perez to give his side of the story. He said that the investigation was directed by a Police Colonel called Cotes, instead of by an aviation expert.
He spoke of the former case of a previously-reported accident in another plane piloted by Adriano Jose Jimenez Henriquez, the missing pilot from STI who was last heard of after taking off from Turks & Caicos airport. He mentioned that when that happened he was in La Vega, and when he reported back to the airport, the person in charge of air accident investigations, Air Force officer Enmanuel Souffront was already on the scene. He said it was known at the time that Jimenez Henriquez had only a US student license. He said that Souffront should have disqualified him from making further flights, but this did not happen. He said that his responsibility was merely to report on the damage suffered by the aircraft. He told Diario Libre that the issue of the pilot’s license was Souffront’s responsibility. He also said that the authorizations to fly come from the air controller. He said that at that time of the 6 December accident involving Jimenez, there was no impediment placed on Adriano Jimenez, while he was ordered to stop the airplane from leaving the airport. “Never did the person in charge of the department of inspections, Christian Gomez tell me on behalf of the assistant of the director of Flight Regulations to stop the pilot,” he said.