What we have learnt from the Opebi helicopter crash

It was noon on Friday, August 28, 2020, when a quiet day in Opebi community, a middle-class residential area of Ikeja, suddenly turned catastrophic, as a helicopter operated by private aviation company dropped from the sky into a family building and broke into pieces. It is the sort of scenes that are possible only in the movie, but this one was real and deadly.

The chopper reported to be returning from training in Port Harcourt was carrying two crew members and one passenger when the sudden crash occurred. Two persons died in the crash, and another injured person later died at the intensive care unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.

An eyewitness, while speaking to BBC, described the event as a devastating one. The helicopter, they said, struggled to balance in the air before it abruptly crashed on top of a fence in between two buildings. The aftermath of tragedies like this is irreparable. Not only will the family and loved ones of the victims be in utter grief, the witnesses, and owners of the building where the incidence took place will be emotionally traumatised, in addition to the financial loss (in some cases) from the unexpected damages.

An older woman who lives in one of the buildings where the crash happened, told the BBC said she was in her room reading the bible, when she heard the loud noise from the crash. “I couldn’t put myself together, I saw smoke everywhere and lightning. It was when I got (outside), I saw that a helicopter had crashed in between one house and my daughter-in-law’s flat. This accident was so bad, it affected two cars in our compound” she said.

Nigerians took to social media to celebrate the heroism of the late pilot, Captain Prudence Ernest Chika, who was said to have emptied the fuel tanks of the helicopter to prevent a fire explosion on impact, and that he purposely crashed into a fence to minimise casualty.

There are other lessons to glean from this accident.

Accidents have no destined locations
This accident reinforces the knowledge that crashes of this nature can occur anywhere in the face of the earth. Though by the nature of some locations, they can be said to be prone accidents due to proximity to risky activities- such as having to site a business near a highway bearing fast-moving vehicles.

But an accident can also occur where people are innocently having a siesta in their homes, completely oblivious of an unfortunate vehicle that has developed technical problem heading to make a mess of their building.