By Michelle Gonsalves and Michel Outridge
The body of 23-year-old Aliya Bulkan, who reportedly leapt from the
escarpment on the Kaieteur Falls last Saturday, arrived at the Ogle Aerodrome,
East Coast Demerara yesterday at 16:00 hrs on an Air Services charter.
ALIYA'S parents yesterday
It was an emotional scene, as Aliya’s parents, siblings and other family members gathered at Ogle Aerodrome to console each other, murmuring words of comfort.
The body
was then placed in a hearse and conveyed to the Sandy’s Funeral Home in the
city where other relatives and friends showed up.
They comforted each other with hugs and sat outside the funeral home in quiet discussion as arrangements were made for the storage of the body.
FAMILY members outside Sandy's funeral home yesterday
Family
members were too distraught to speak to the media and asked for time to grieve
for their loved one.
A senior
official from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) told the Guyana Chronicle that the
search team had abandoned their attempt to get to the basin through the gorge
because of the rough terrain.
Instead,
the source revealed that a path was cut around the gorge so that the body of the
young woman could be retrieved.
Troops
from 31 Special Forces yesterday recovered Aliyah’s body from the rugged
terrain of the Kaieteur Gorge.
The GDF
said the troops, comprising two Officers, 12 soldiers and three civilians,
inclusive of one family member, recovered the body at about 13:45 hours
yesterday. It was placed in a body bag and tied to a stretcher, which was then
hoisted to the top of the Kaieteur Falls, from where it was dispatched at about
15:05 hrs to Ogle airport.
Bulkan and
a friend, Lisa Ahmad, were among eight others on the trip to Kaieteur
Falls,
including the pilot.
Their flight with Roraima Airways left Georgetown at 8:15 hrs and reached the
destination point at 9:15 hrs.
Eyewitnesses
claim that, at the end of the tour, the falls being the last stop on the tour of
the Kaieteur National Park, the young woman turned back, in the direction of the
falls, making the deadly leap over the 741
ft. (226 meters) waterfall.
Four days
earlier, on Monday, November 9, the recovery party arrived at Kaieteur Falls at
09:00 hrs and, after a preliminary assessment of where the body could have
landed, began the recovery effort. Their search along the escarpment led them to
the Amerindian village of Tukeit where a command post was established. The body
was sighted from the top of the Kaieteur Falls and this information was passed
to the recovery team at the bottom. The recovery efforts were thwarted by the
particularly difficult terrain in the gorge. However, the team continued, using
another route and further civilian expertise, which led to the eventual recovery
of the body yesterday.
The troops are still in the area and will return to Timehri today.
Friday, November 13, 2009
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