Bodies of ECCAA officials being flown home

The Montana Hotel that James and McAlpin were checked into was reduced to rubble in the quake.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, March 8, 2010 – The bodies of two Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA) officials who died in Haiti’s devastating earthquake will be flown home this week, as arrangements are made for their funerals.

Antigua-based airline LIAT has agreed to transport the remains of former Director General Rosemond James and Director of Flight Safety Gregory McAlpin to Antigua. James, a St Lucian who made his Antigua his home, will be buried there on March 23rd. 

A memorial service is expected to be held for McAlpin in Antigua. But the body will then be flown to McAlpin’s homeland, Trinidad and Tobago, by Caribbean Airlines in time for his funeral on Friday. 

Both airlines have indicated they are making the flights free of charge.

After weeks of searching for James and McAlpin, their bodies were on February 22nd pulled from the rubble of the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince, where the two had checked in on the same day the 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit on January 12th. They had been in the country for a Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System meeting.

Identification of their bodies was initially made through jewellery and drivers licences and confirmed through lab tests.