The mother, sister and brother-in-law of former Cabinet Minister Sidney Collie were killed early yesterday when a plane crashed into their truck on the runway at the Mayaguana airport. Police said they were inside one of two trucks that were using their high beams to guide the nine-seater plane onto the runway, a long-standing practice at the airport at night. The two trucks were stationed on either side of the runway to light the plane's path as the airport has no lighting. The pilots came to pick up Collie's uncle who had a medical emergency.
As the twin-engine plane landed around 1 a.m., one of its wings clipped an F-150 truck driven by a woman, police said. The plane spun out of control and hit another truck, which burst into flames on impact. The victims were trapped inside the burning truck and their bodies were burnt beyond recognition, according to officials. It took investigators hours to remove the bodies from the scene because of their condition. The victims are Collie's mother, Edith Collie, 82, sister Enamae Polowick and her husband, Tim Polowick, a Canadian.
The plane's pilot, co-pilot and a nurse onboard escaped the crash unharmed, but the aircraft was badly damaged. A team of investigators from the capital flew to Mayaguana early yesterday. Collie also flew to the island shortly after the crash. He spoke to The Nassau Guardian minutes after he landed at Lynden Pindling International Airport yesterday evening. Collie said when he landed in Mayaguana he was unprepared for what he saw. He added that he will fight for Mayaguana to receive the attention it deserves from government.
"The government is going to have to address this," Collie said. "This cannot be allowed to continue. This is going to be my mission to ensure that kind of situation doesn't happen again. "Why do you have to have a flight at 1 a.m. flying on a runway that is not fit, that cannot pass any international tests for flight during the day, forget about a flight during the night?" He said the two trucks were lined too close to the runway. Collie said as the plane landed its wing went through the windshield of the first truck and the female driver was able to escape unharmed.
The plane careened about 500 feet down the runway into his mother's truck, its fuel tank burst and sprayed gasoline onto the vehicle which burst into flames. "It incinerated the truck. It melted the metal and consumed the human lives," he said, adding that his family is devastated over the deaths. Collie comforted his 88-year-old father in Mayaguana after the accident. PLEDGE Minister of Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna-Martin said it was too early to say what caused the accident. When asked if anyone will be held accountable for the crash, she said, "It depends on what the facts are."
She pledged that her ministry will immediately intervene to ensure that emergency lighting is placed at the runway at Mayaguana's airport, as well as airports in Stella Maris, Long Island, and Fresh Creek, Andros. Island administrator Charles Moss said the tight-knit community was emotional over the tragedy. "They are hurt...because the runway is under construction and we have been needing an airport runway for sometime," Moss said. Hilbert Collie, who lost his mother and sister in the accident, said it was tragic that his relatives "had to die" to compel authorities to place proper runway lighting at the airport. "I don't have any confidence in them (the government) that they will ever do anything," Collie said.
"They could find money for all kind of stupidity, but the necessities of life they can't find [money]." He said his mother was beloved by everyone in Mayaguana. "Everybody in Mayaguana knows her," Collie said. "Everybody in Mayaguana would eat out of her pot. Everybody in Mayaguana would sleep in her house. "The last thing she told me was she loved me and I must pray for her. I told her I loved her and we hung up. It was the last time we spoke."
He added that his sister, who worked at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) until 2011, was a vibrant newlywed. "Enamae was a very fun person, outgoing, very cordial," he said. "She was a very independent person, always [had] ideas...to improve herself." Collie's uncle was flown to Nassau via another plane yesterday, The Guardian understands. Officials said the airport's renovation and runway refurbishment is being spearheaded by Boston-based developers the I-Group.
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