A number of flights heading to Guyana last night and early this morning, were diverted to other countries after the runway lights at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport went out and became inoperable, leaving the runway in darkness.

In a statement last evening, the Ministry of Works indicated that the runway lights and the backup lighting system were both knocked out yesterday afternoon during a rain storm at the airport.

The airport’s maintenance team and a team from the Guyana Power and Light company, were called out to fix the problem. Up to early this morning, the work was ongoing.

As a result of the inoperable runway lights, two American Airline flights that were heading to Guyana were diverted to Barbados and a Jet Blue flight was forced to divert and land in Puerto Rico. Caribbean Airlines was also forced to divert its flights and all outgoing flights last night were cancelled.

Many of those flights will leave this morning and this afternoon, during daylight.

Related posts:

Eastern Airlines aircraft skids off CJIA runway; No injuries reported American Airlines plane suffers blow-out of tyres during departure at CJIA; Flight cancelled AA flight diverted to Trinidad over runway lights issue at CJIA; Problem rectified Caribbean Airlines to fly ATR planes to Ogle during CJIA temporary night closures