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.
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.
“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.”