A private jet flying the Prime Minister Perry Christie, back to Nassau from St. Kitts was involved in a dramatic landing just hours before he spoke at the re-naming ceremony at the country's international airport.

News of the incident was not made public and although no one on board the aircraft was in any way injured it was a frightening experience. Mr. Christie told a colleague that it was a "harrowing" incident. The plane was returning from the CARICOM heads of government meeting in St. Kitts when it developed "technical" problems. The Guardian understands that the aircraft had braking problems and this caused a full alert at the airport with fire tenders racing to the jet as it touched down, shortly before midnight.

Also on board the plane were Fred Mitchell, minister of Foreign Affairs; Missouri Sherman-Peters, permanent secretary of Foreign Affairs; Leonard Archer, the Bahamas Ambassador to CARICOM, and the PM's personal protection officer.

The Guardian tried to contact officials at the airport but were referred to Bahamas Information Services who said they knew nothing about the matter.

However, the incident did not detract from the re-naming ceremony.