All 11 persons aboard a Bristow Aviation Services helicopter which crashed into the Lagos Lagoon Wednesday morning survived.
The National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) gave the coordinates of the craft location as 05.44.3N and 04 16.9E.
Ibrahim Farinloye, NEMA’s spokesperson said the hospital would be better placed to evaluate the state of health of the the helicopter’s 11 occupants.
Consultants of Bristow say that it was not a crash but a “controlled Ditch,” an action a pilot takes when he notices something wrong.
The crash is coming barely six months after a Sikorsky S-76C helicopter with registration number 5N – BDG – 760540 belonging to the same establishment crashed at the Oworoshoki end of the Lagos Lagoon.
Tunji Oketunbi, Head, Public Affairs, Accident Investigative Bureau, (AIB) said “the A S76 C++ helicopter marked 5N-BQJ belonging to Bristow Helicopters, which departed ERHA Platform enroute Lagos ditched into the Atlantic Ocean 95 nautical miles to destination at about 10:20am local time.”
Oketumbi confirmed that all eleven souls on board, including two crew members were rescued alive.
He assured that Accident Investigation Bureau AIB has commenced investigation into the occurrence and that details would be communicated later.
In the 2015 crash six of the 12 people on board died, while six others survived.
The site of today (Wednesday’s) crash as at the time of filing this report was yet to be ascertained.
A source at Bristow Helicopters who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter told our reporter that no life was lost in the incident.
Meanwhile, Nkiru Onyejeocha, chairman, House Committee on Aviation who earlier confirmed the report, at the scheduled 2016 budget defence of various aviation regulatory agencies, urged that the media wait for an official statement on the incident.
Onyeocha emphasised the need for speedy intervention of the regulatory agencies and search and rescue operations.
Onyejeocha therefore adjourned the 2016 budget defence, to enable relevant aviation agencies attend to search and rescue operations.
Ifeoma Okeke
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