John (Bob) Rogers, one of Anguilla’s most influential and long-serving taxi drivers, says he and his colleagues “suffered for 20-live long years” watching the American Eagle flying over the island to St. Maarten because the airstrip at Wallblake was wet and the aircraft could not land.

He was referring to one of a number of cases when the aircraft, carrying a full load of passengers and fuel, feared that the limited length of the wet runway might prevent it from landing and stopping safely and therefore aborted the flight into Anguilla.

He said the opportunity had now come for the extension of the airport and that he had advised the Chief Minister “to stick to his guns and present his case to the British Government as strongly as he could and he would be successful”. He made the statement while explaining the reason for Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming publicly thanking him for his advice on his return from the London talks last week.
Mr. Rogers went on: “I helped the Chief Minister by giving him some history of the Wallblake Airport and its problems over the years. The airport was laid out wrong when it was surfaced. The late Clayton Lloyd [Anguillla’s first pilot] told the surveyor, a man by the name of George Pope, that the airport’s alignment was wrong; but the contractors and their agents decided that was the way it had to go. The bump in the runway was supposed to have been taken out but was left. That created a problem because it should have been removed and the fill from it should have been placed upfront and it would have been settled by now.
“In 1980 after the airport was surfaced and lights were put there a number of taxi-drivers, including Franklyn Richardson (Broths), spoke with some English officials and they made it abundantly clear that once the airport had lights on it, the British Government had no intention of moving the airport from there. In that year the island’s political leadership started to argue about building an airport to the north of the island after the British Government had decided to put a terminal building at the existing airport. It was physically stopped and that remained a stalemate.
“In 1984 after Sir Emile’s Government won the election he went to the British Government, asked for the terminal building and got it. So the argument about going north and extending the Wallblake Airport was settled once the airport had lights on it. The various Governments after that only created more problems for the people of Anguilla by denying them the extension of the airport.

“We suffered as taxi-drivers for 20 years – 20 live-long years watching the Eagle come overhead and had to go to St. Maarten because the airstrip was wet. The opportunity has now come when the airport could be extended and I told the Chief Minister to stick to his guns, present the case to the British Government as strongly as he could and he would be successful. When he came back, he told me that he thanked me for my advice and that they [the delegation] had got through. I look forward to the day when the airport will be extended to 5,606 feet and I hope that the argument would cease. That’s all I have to say.”

John (Bob) Rogers

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