‘It was airworthy’ – NCAA speaks on crashed helicopter

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, has debunked the report that a helicopter with registration 5NBQG that crashed in Port Harcourt, Rivers state last week was not airworthy.

The Director-General of NCAA, Chris Najomo, in a statement, said it was not true that the ill-fated copter was scrapped in 2018, as claimed reports making the rounds.

DAILY POST recalls that on Thursday, a copter operated by East Wind Aviation and engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, crashed at 11:22 a.m. along the waterways in the Rivers State capital.

The copter reportedly took off from Port Harcourt Military Base, DNPM, with its destination as the FPSO – NUIMS ANTAN oil rig.

A total of eight persons were confirmed on board but four bodies have been recovered so far.

A report by an online platform (not DAILY POST) had said that the ill-fated copter was scrapped outside the country in 2018 but the NCAA boss said that was not correct.

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Najomo said, “The attention of the Authority has been brought to a report by the Sahara reporters on the airworthiness status of the recently crashed helicopter with registration marks 5N-BQG before the crash.

“In their report, it was stated that the aircraft was initially registered in the year 2004 as 5N-BGN with Aero Contractors after which it was deregistered to Canada in the year 2009.

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“The report then went on to state that the aircraft registration was canceled in September 2018 after it was ‘presumably scrapped’. Their report concluded with a question of how the Helicopter was moved to Nigeria and registered as 5N-BQG before the crash.”

‘It was airworthy’ – NCAA speaks on crashed helicopter

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