ST. CROIX — Seaborne Airlines’ seaplane operations were affected by a pilot shortage and an internal power failure at the hangar on St. Croix, leading to flight cancellations on Tuesday and today, a Seaborne official said.
“The decision was made to cancel the flights,” Phil Lambrechts, Seaborne’s executive director of Operations, said.
Flights are scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. Thursday, and passengers will be rebooked or refunded, Lambrechts said.
The airport operations of Seaborne’s parent company, Silver Airways, were not affected during the two-day closure of the seaplane terminals in downtown Christiansted and Charlotte Amalie.
On Tuesday and today, customers who arrived at the Svend Aage Ovesen Jr. Seaplane Terminal in Christiansted and the Charles F. Blair Jr. Seaplane Terminal in Charlotte Amalie found the entrance gates closed and locked.
“We had a major power outage at the hangar that took out all the air conditioning and the internet,” Lambrechts said about the St. Croix seaplane terminal, clarifying it was unrelated to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority. “On top of that, we had a temporary pilot shortage due to one of our crew members who was scheduled to fly, who had to tend to a family emergency in the states.”
Seaborne is operating its seaplane flights with one aircraft and five pilots, Lambrechts said. He said two of the pilots were previously granted leave for vacation this week and one pilot had medical appointments that could not be changed in addition to the pilot who had a family emergency in Florida.
“We could not get his flights covered in that short amount of time with the pilots we had available,” Lambrechts said about the pilot who traveled to Florida.
The internal power failure in the hangar at the St. Croix terminal was a coincidence on top of the pilot shortage, according to Lambrechts. He said the power failure likely would have still forced the airline to cancel flights even if it had sufficient pilots available because aircraft maintenance is completed at night.
“There was no lighting available for the maintenance personnel but that’s being resolved as we speak,” Lambrechts said this afternoon.
The seaplane hangar experienced an issue with an internal circuit, Lambrechts said. He said an electrician was scheduled to repair it today.
“We’re going to operate tomorrow with or without power,” he said. “Maintenance came in to inspect the airplane today, and it’s ready to go.”
Seaborne is resuming its seaplane operations just in time for the final few days of St. Thomas Carnival events.
“We have some very strong passenger counts for the next three days,” Lambrechts said.
