Osinbajo helicopter crash: Caverton attributes incident to weather conditions

Caverton Helicopters has attributed the crash landing of the helicopter in which Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was travelling in Kaaba, Kogi State, to bad weather.

This is just as investigation into the aircraft under the management of Caverton Helicopters has commenced to unravel the probable cause of the incident.

In a statement, Josiah Choms, managing director/accountable officer of Caverton Helicopters, 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 (February 2, 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.
According to him, “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”.

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The AgustaWestland AW139 is a 15-seat medium-sized twin-engined helicopter developed and produced principally by Augusta Westland.

It is marketed at several different roles, including VIP/corporate transport, offshore transport, fire-fighting, law enforcement, search and rescue, emergency medical service, disaster relief, and maritime patrol.

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 re-designated 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.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.