KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), through their Spokesman on Transport, Mikael Phillips, yesterday called for an investigation into the closure of Jamaica’s airspace for more than 24 hours, effectively shutting down all arrivals and departures of aircraft.

The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) stopped accepting traffic after the Kingston Air Traffic Control Centre (KATCC) reportedly suffered damage to its radar and communication networks as a result of a lightning strike incident that occurred during inclement weather on Friday.

However, Phillips said in a release yesterday that “the excuse of a lightning strike cannot account for the extremely long delay in getting Jamaica’s civil aviation activities resumed”.

The Opposition spokesman asserted that Jamaica has the necessary professional and material resources to respond to such an incident in a much shorter time frame. He called on the minister and the JCAA immediately investigate and provide a detailed explanation of the closure as Jamaica’s civil aviation status, he said, could suffer reputational damage from this long delay in service resumption.

Phillips also called for a reliable back up system to be put in place and said the focus going forward “should entail a complete overhaul of the air navigation and communications system”.