November 13, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government said Wednesday, that search is still ongoing for the remaining three victims of the ill-fated helicopter crash in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
THEWILL had reported that the helicopter en route from Port Harcourt Military Base (DNPM) to the NUIMANTAN oil rig with 6 passengers and two crew members, ditched into the waters near Bonny Finima in the Atlantic Ocean on October 24, 2024.
Operated by East Winds Aviation and registered as 5NBQG, the helicopter was hired by NNPC Limited to ferry some contract staff to the NNPC facility FPSO-NUIMS ANTAN.
The flight’s electronic manifest identified the deceased NNPCL staff as Tamunoemi Suku, Alu Lawrence, Etim Emmanuel, Kenneth Chikwem, Frank Oriamre, and Borris Ndorbo. The pilot, Captain Yakubu Dukas, and a crew member were also involved.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, said out of the eight persons on the flight, three bodies were still missing while five bodies had been discovered. One passenger and two crew members were yet to be found.
The Minister along with the director-general of the National Safety and Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Alex Badeh Jr, also said the recovered ‘black box’ of the ill-fated helicopter, moved to Abuja on November 11, was undergoing investigation.
Badeh assured Nigerians that they were now on a long-term search and recovery phase as the federal government would not give up the search for the remaining three bodies.
He said they have notified other neighbouring countries, especially as one of the five bodies was found in Cameroon, noting that the agency was offering support to families of the victims.
“As you may recall, the ill-fated helicopter crashed about 1.4 km from its destination on the NNPC’s Floating Production Storage Offloading vessel (FPSO) (Nuim Antan). As soon as the area of the crash was identified, the Nigerian Air Force conveyed our Go-Team to Port Harcourt, from where the Go-Team was transported to the Nuim Antan vessel on a Nigerian Navy AgustaWestland (AW109) helicopter on the same day of the accident.
“Meanwhile, search and rescue was activated, and a team comprising teams from the NNPC, Nigerian Navy, NSIB, Hydro Dive, NIMASA and the ships sailed around the vicinity of the accident site. Underwater recovery of victims and wreckage is a significant project that requires careful planning and provision of technology, expertise and substantial financial resources to support the operation.
“Over 60 personnel mobilised to the site, including professional divers and other technical experts. We deployed marine vessels and diver boats equipped with sophisticated state-of-the-art gadgets for scanning the sea bed and tracking. The depth of the sea around the vicinity of the accident site varied from 40 to 100 meters. The search and rescue operation was interrupted several times by heavy rains, oceanic currents and strong winds. It is imperative to mention that the search and recovery operations continued unabated day and night on a 24×7 basis for 14 days.
“On day 1 of the accident, three bodies of some debris suspected to be from the crashed helicopter were spotted floating and were picked up. So far, five bodies identified to be of the deceased passengers have been recovered, while one passenger and two (2) crew members are yet to be found.
“At midnight of October 31, 2024, the wreckage of the helicopter was finally located at a depth of 42m, Latitude 04° 13.634’N and Longitude 008 19.442’E. Although scattered in pieces, major parts and components of the helicopter, except for the flight recorder (Black Box), were recovered, including the fuselage, two engines, main gearbox, landing gears, main and tail rotor, tail rotor shaft, etc. The search and recovery efforts continued until the flight recorder was found on Friday, 8 November 2024. The search and recovery operations took over 14 days.”
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