FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert has said a fuel problem was the reason why a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) ATR 72-600 aircraft had to make an emergency landing at Piarco International Airport on January 27.

He made this comment in response to a question from Opposition Senator Wade Mark in the Senate on Tuesday January 28.

Before giving his response, Imbert reminded senators the Finance Ministry is the reporting ministry for CAL.

During the tenure of the former UNC-led People's Partnership coalition government, May 2010-September 2015, CAL was reassigned from the Works and Transport Ministry to the Finance Ministry.

Referring to information on his cell phone, Imbert said CAL informed him about this incident which happened at 10 pm on Monday.

While the CAL report on the incident was very technical, he continued, it appears there was a problem with fuel for one of the engines.

"One of the engines basically ran out of fuel which caused the captain to make the mandatory announcement, in accordance with civil aviation regulations, to the passengers, that they should get into the position that is recommended for an emergency landing."

Imbert told senators, "The captain managed to pilot the aircraft safely and landed well."

He added there were no injuries to passengers or crew and the plane has been withdrawn from service. Imbert repeated, "It appears that the problem arose from inaccurate measurements of the amount of fuel in the left tank of the aircraft.

Mark asked if an investigation was launched into this matter.

Imbert said, "No problem at all. I did myself ask that question. It's a natural question to ask."

He identified the plane's pilot and two technicians as the people who would know how much "fuel was in the particular tank that fed the particular engine that had the problem." Imbert said, "These three individuals are not in active service at this point in time."

He added, "It is normal when you are doing an investigation. They (CAL) will follow their normal procedures."

Imbert said he did not know the names of the three people involved and this was not a matter for him to become involved in.

"CAL will follow all the established procedures, in accordance with civil aviation rules and regulations, and their own internal industrial relations procedures to make sure that all persons involved get a fair hearing and that the root cause of the problem is determined."

Imbert said it is unnecessary to withdraw all CAL ATR 72-600's from service because of this incident.

In response to another comment from Mark, Imbert said he was unaware of another incident which took place last August with another CAL plane.

"I am told that preliminary information is there is nothing wrong with the aircraft itself. It's simply the measurement of the amount of fuel that was in the tank. There is nothing wrong with the plane."

Imbert thanked Mark for the information he provided.

"Now that you have told me there was an incident with an aircraft last year, I will certainly ask for details with respe