Bajan to captain JetBlue flight

WHEN JETBLUE’S FLIGHT 661 lands in Barbados tomorrow, a new chapter will be written in the history of the airline’s service to the Caribbean country.

For the first time since the carrier started flying to Barbados in 2009, a Barbadian, Captain Ophneal D. Kellman, 37, will be in command of the 190-passenger aircraft that is due to depart John F. Kennedy International Airport tomorrow morning.

“It’s like a dream come true,” Captain Kellman told the NATION.

“I am excited and ecstatic that at last I will be able to command a commercial fight into Barbados. Ever since, I began this aviation journey, I have been dreaming of someday flying a passenger plane into the home of my parents and it is coming true.”

 Kellman has been flying for JetBlue since 2007, two years before the carrier started its service to Barbados but it will be the first time he will be flying into Barbados as a captain of a flight. He has commanded flights to St Lucia, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Turks & Caicos Islands and a long list of domestic destinations in the United States. (TB)