Seized BWIA plane still in Miami By Nirad Tewarie Trinidad Express 05.22.03 The Boeing 737 aircraft which was seized by BWIA creditor, International Leasing Finance Co (ILFC) in Miami on Tuesday, has not yet been released. BWIA spokesman Clint Williams, who had said on Tuesday that the situation would be "under control in a day or two", would only say yesterday that the airline was "negotiating for the return of the aircraft". The Government has signed a $5 million letter of comfort for the airline in an effort to have the plane released. The money is part of a $116.8 million bailout package approved by Cabinet last month. As a result of the seizure of the plane, 103 passengers were stranded in Miami and returned to Trinidad only last night. BWIA had to put the passengers up at a Miami hotel and cover some of their meals. While no specific figure was available for the cost of such a move, BWIA officials say they expected the bill to run into tens of thousands of dollars. BWIA officials have stressed that the incident is "isolated" and that all other flights will be running on schedule. After losing $182 million in 2002, the airline received close to US$13 million from the Government at the end of last year before asking the Government for another bailout of $116.8 million this year. Several members of staff have also been laid off by the airline *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************