Millionaire losses occurred on Sunday, 23 May 2021 when a blackout affected the Las Americas International Airport, impeding the landing and departure of several flights. The incident was caused by a “short circuit,” as announced by the Specialized Airport and Civil Aviation Security Corps (Cesac) or “vandalism” as announced by Vice President Raquel Peña. Peña at the time was acting President since President Luis Abinader was in Ecuador for a presidential inaugural.
A report in Acento says the action could have been averted. As reported in Acento, the military authorities had plenty of early warnings and time to improve security at the airport and did not take the appropriate actions.
Acento denounces the airport security and civil aviation authorities ignored the risks to the surveillance system when the 26 thermal cameras stopped working. Acento reported on the systems failure back in March 2021.
Neither did the security service take action when during the early morning of 27 March some 20 meters of the airport gates were stolen. Acento reports that instead, a “witch hunt” was begun among Cesac members to determine who had filtered the information to the media.
Acento says that theft is more frequent at the airport since the cameras have been out of service. The cameras enabled the monitoring of the exterior fence area.
Acento says that another 26 cameras were dismounted, with no explanation from the authorities.
Meanwhile, Charlie Mariotti, secretary general of the opposition Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) referring to the blackout, said it is very serious that there is no single version of what happened on behalf of the authorities. There are differences in the versions between the statements by the Vice President of the Republic, the Specialized Airport and Civil Aviation Security Corps (Cesac) and the airport operators.
In February 2021, a Canadian in bathing trunks penetrated the runway ramp with his car. No explanations have been forthcoming from the authorities about that case.
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Acento
N Digital
El Nacional
Diario Libre
26 May 2021