January 27, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), on Thursday denied reports that its helicopter had crashed in Bauchi State.
It also debunked reports that six of its personnel on board the helicopter got injured.
THEWILL reports that the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) had on Thursday, in a statement issued by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Tunji Oketunbi, said it “was notified by Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) about an accident involving a Bell 429 helicopter with Registration Marks 5N-MDA owned and operated by Nigerian Police Force (NPF)
“The accident occurred on 26th January, 2022 around 7:30pm (Local Time) at Bauchi Airport. The NPF helicopter departed Abuja at 16:54 UTC for Bauchi with Six persons on board maintaining 5,500ft. There were some injuries but no fatality”, the AIB had said in the statement.
Reacting to report, the Force Public Relations Officer, CP Frank Mba, said the helicopter did not crash, explaining that the pilot only had a controlled landing.
Mba clarified that the helicopter took off from Abuja and got to Bauchi around 7am but the pilot discovered that there was no light on the runway.
He said only the tail rotor of the helicopter was damaged.
He said: “Our plane did not crash. We had a controlled landing in Bauchi. The chopper departed Abuja and got into Bauchi at about 7am on Thursday.
“And incidentally, the runway lights were off. So visibility was an issue. They hovered around the airport hoping that somebody would turn-on the light.
“They tried to reach them on the communication set, nobody was on the control tower and at the end of the day, they had no choice but to do a control landing. And they landed safely.
“The only thing that happened is that very close to where they landed the tail rotor hit the branch of a tree. So the only damage they had was to the tail rotor.
“And there were six persons onboard and nobody was injured. And there was no major damage to the plane.”
