MRCU receives a brand new plane

Leader of Government Business, Hon Kurt Tibbetts,
greets the pilot, Jon Eggas who flew the new aircraft
here

Tuesday,  January 31, 2006

The Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) recently acquired a new plane from Thrush Aircraft, a small aircraft company located in Albany, Georgia. The company builds aircraft designed for specialist purposes, and the new plane is equipped with the most up to date computerized insecticide spraying equipment. 

The new aircraft is the first of two that have been anticipated by the unit since a crash landing in August left the unit without a viable plane and solely dependent on ground level spraying, primarily by truck.

Alan Wheeler, Assistant Director of the MRCU said that the new plane is equipped with sensors which pick up wind speed and direction. The information from these sensors is fed to a computer in the aircraft which tells the pilot where to position the plane in order to spray the mosquito insecticide more accurately.

Flight operations at MRCU have been grounded since 2 August 2005, when the previous MRCU plane skidded off the runway at Owen Roberts International Airport, damaging the plane. The incident left MRCU solely dependent on ground-level mosquito control measures, mainly by trucks applying insecticide to control adult mosquitoes.

Chief Pilot Richard Clough said, “It will be several weeks before we are ready to re-launch our aerial spraying programme. We must first take every measure to ensure the plane is ready and that all equipment and software is calibrated correctly. 

The second of the two planes, worth US$1 million each, is to arrive by early April, in the busy June-to-December spraying season.

Minister of District Administration & Leader of Government Business, Hon Kurt Tibbetts, came to witness the arrival of the new aircraft, and to meet the members of the MRCU, as well as the pilot who flew it here. 

“The addition of this aircraft will enhance the unit’s ability in their work in the Cayman Islands in controlling mosquitoes,” said Mr Tibbetts.

“They are looking forward to putting the plane into action straight away, and this plane will serve us for the next 20-25 years, along with the one on the way.”

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