Caverton helicopters has attributed the crash-landing of the Helicopter in which Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was travelling in Kaaba, Kogi State to ‘unusual weather conditions’.
The chopper landed on its side on Saturday after as it seemed to have stalled and the pilot lost the control of the equipment, but both passenger and crew escaped unhurt.
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) said it would depart to Kogi state on Sunday to carry out investigations on why the incident happened, just as the operators of the helicopter; Caverton has started its own investigation to ascertain what happened.
In a statement, the Managing Director/Accountable Officer of Caverton Helicopters, Captain Josiah Choms described the weather at the time of the crash as an unusual weather conditions.
“An Augusta AW139 Helicopter, under management by Caverton Helicopter was involved in a mishap on landing in Kabba, Kogi state around 3pm today (2nd February 2019) as a result of unusual weather conditions”
He said there were no injuries to the passengers or crew on-board and they were all quickly and safely evacuated.
His words, “The relevant authorities have been duly informed and an investigation into the incident has commenced. We will, of course, support the authorities as required”.
“We wish to reassure the public and our various stakeholders of our unwavering commitment to safety in all of our operations”.
Industry insiders are still aghast why people still milled around the chopper after it crash-landed and described it as breach of security precautionary measures but a seasoned pilot who specialized in helicopter operation said that modern helicopters do not explode into fire as obtained in the past; unless it landed into fire during the crash.
The AgustaWestland AW139 is a 15-seat medium-sized twin-engined helicopter developed and produced principally by Augusta Westland.
In addition to AgustaWestland’s own manufacturing facilities in Italy and the United States, the AW139 is produced in Russia by HeliVert, a joint venture between AgustaWestland and Russian Helicopters.
The AW139 was originally designed and developed jointly by Agusta and Bell Helicopters and marketed as the Agusta-Bell AB139, being redesignated AW139 when Bell withdrew from the project.
Since entering service in 2003, the AW139 has become one of AgustaWestland’s most influential products; it has been subsequently developed into two enlarged medium-lift helicopters, the military-orientated AW 149and the AW189 the civil market.
