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Government staff banned from Caribbean carrier amid safety fears

UK government workers have been banned from using Caribbean carrier Insel Air.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “Safety concerns have been raised about Insel Air.

“The US and Netherlands authorities have prohibited their staff from using the airline while safety checks are being carried out.

“UK government officials have been told to do the same as a precaution.”

The Curacao-based carrier, which has an Aruba-based sister airline, runs inter-island flights as well as serving Miami, Caracas and Medellin.

InselAir said: “InselAir is aware of the fact that the Dutch Civil Aviation Inspectorate has recently visited Aruba and Curacao and met with the representatives of both airlines, including their Chief Executive Officers.

“They requested to perform spontaneous audits to which both airlines had no objections.

“Contrary to the information being circulated by the media, both local and abroad, both airlines remain until now unaware of any findings from the Dutch Civil Aviation Inspectorate that would have an effect on the airworthiness of their operations.

“Upon the briefing received after the audit the inspectors said that they were pleasantly surprised with the conclusion of the findings in all of the following areas: flight operations, operation control centre, safety and security, training, scheduling, quality and maintenance of InselAir Curacao.

“This independent audit performed by the Dutch Civil Aviation Inspectorate brings to the management of both airlines a further high level of comfort as to the quality of the internal oversights performed by its quality personnel.

“Currently neither of the airlines have major pending technical and operational findings with their respective aviation authority.

“The ongoing grounding of the MD fleet in Aruba is due to a position taken by the Aviation Authority of Aruba in support of the government of Aruba that took the decision to freeze the bank account of the airline due to arrears in payment of taxes.”

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