Nigeria’s Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said on Friday that divers sent to recover bodies and debris from Thursday's Port Harcourt helicopter crash have yet to be found.
Premium Times reported on the accident involving a Sikorsky SK76c helicopter with registration number 5N-BQG operated by East Wind Aviation in Rivers State.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC Ltd) announced that the helicopter lost contact while en route from Port Harcourt to the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Antan oil production facility.
The NNPC said there were eight people on board the helicopter, and the bodies of three of them were recovered.
In a short statement posted on his official X page on Friday, Keyamo said deployed divers were still working to find the remaining bodies and debris more than 24 hours after the incident.
“This is to inform the public that the divers who were dispatched to the scene of the helicopter crash in the Atlantic Ocean near Bonny Finima off the coast of Calabar yesterday are still on routine flights working to locate the remaining bodies and remains. is ‘debris,’ the minister wrote.
He said the ministry would issue a more comprehensive press statement as soon as it achieved some results.
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The update from the minister came about 24 hours after the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) announced on Thursday that it had begun an investigation into the accident.
Reacting to the incident, NSIB Director of Public Relations, Wunmi Oladeji, said the NNPC said the helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Bonny Finima off the coast of Calabar during a routine flight at about 11:22am on Thursday. Local time.
The spokesperson said the aircraft lost contact with air traffic controllers at around 10:52 a.m. while en route from the Port Harcourt Military Base (DNPM) to the Angthong Marine Facility.
“The helicopter, which was operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), did not transmit an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) signal, leading authorities to manually plot the accident location to speed up search and rescue operations. It happened.”
Related article: Tinubu sympathizes with NNPC, families of helicopter crash victims
“The operator stated that the helicopter’s fuel endurance was 2 hours and 15 minutes.”
The department urged the public to avoid speculation as it focuses on providing clarity and accountability through investigations.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Petroleum), Mr. Heineken Lokpobiri and other Nigerians expressed deep sadness over the accident and offered their heartfelt condolences to the souls of the deceased.
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