Nigerian helicopter crashes in Benin Republic

A Nigerian registered helicopter crashed in Benin Republic on Thursday, February 25, but no life was lost in the incident.
The helicopter meant for private use was owned by a yet to be named politician from the Niger Delta. The Nation learnt that the chopper was contracted for commercial purposes by a presidential candidate in Benin Republic who wanted to use it for election campaigns before it crashed. When contacted, a source at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the accident and said that the helicopter’s tail rotor clicked on an object and the pilot lost control of it.

“I can confirm that the helicopter was involved in an accident and it is beyond our jurisdiction because it happened outside Nigeria. But we are monitoring things, although I do not have much details yet. But the accident investigation body from that country will have to find out the cause of the accident and the extent of damage done to the aircraft,” the source said. On February 3, eleven people escaped death after a Bristow 5B BJQ Helicopter enroute Lagos from an off shore location in Port Harcourt ditched inside the Atlantic Ocean. Commenting on the incident, Cornelius Onuora, the media consultant to Bristow Helicopters, noted that the incident was not a crash but a controlled ditching, which was an emergency landing of a helicopter on water.

(Culled from www.naij.com)