Above: a Cayman Airways plane

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A Cayman Airways flight headed for Havana experienced a “technical anomaly” on Monday after taking off from Grand Cayman, leading the Captain to return home as a precautionary measure, the carrier said.

The flight departed Grand Cayman for Cuba at 1:25 PM, experiencing the anomaly “shortly into the flight.”

In a statement, the company said the anomaly “did not constitute an emergency and that the Captain accordingly did not declare an emergency, despite initial rumours to the contrary.”

A replacement aircraft was positioned and took over the flight to Havana, which ultimately left at 5:30 PM. The affected aircraft was removed from service to address the issue.

The company said its flights between Grand Cayman and Miami were expected to be delayed in the neighbourhood of 3.5 hours.

“As always, we know that the presence of emergency services for any landing causes concern for our passengers and the community at large, but we would like to give an assurance that the emergency services requested to be on standby in this instance, was purely precautionary,” said Cayman Airways President and CEO, Fabian Whorms. “Our highly competent operating crews will at times request for airport emergency services to be on stand-by when landings are being undertaken with even minor anomalies, and this is a testament to the paramount importance we place on safety.”