Lagos Helicopter Crash: AIB Releases Preliminary Report

Tobi Adebayo 

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has released the preliminary report of the helicopter accident that occured at Opebi, Lagos.

According to AIB, the Bell 206B Helicopter operated by Quorum Aviation Limited, had no fuel left in the fuel tanks after the crash.

The report read in part “The chopper was fitted with a long range extender fuel system, it, however, did not have capacity for fuel jettison.

‘The chopper which took off from Port Harcourt at 9.20 am estimated to land in Lagos after two hours forty minutes crashed into residential building at 12.14 pm.

“Although the chopper was topped to full tank capacity on August 27, 2020 it failed to make it to the Lagos Airport a minute before the estimated time.

“The pilot’s last medical examination was valid till August 6, 2020. It indicated that there was no evidence to show that an application for the exemption provided by the All Operators’ Letter (AOL) DG02020 had been submitted to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

“The pilot’s last proficiency check was valid till August 24, 2020. There was no evidence to show that an application for the exemption provided by the AIL DG018/ 20 had been submitted to the NCAA.

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” The helicopter crashed into the roof of a building and a wall fence impacting two vehicles parked in the compound. The mast and main rotor blades were found intact during the post-crash inspection. Post occurrence examination revealed that the fuel tanks were empty.”

“The helicopter was not equipped with a flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder. Neither was required by the relevant aviation regulations but equipped with a Garmic GNC Global Positioning System.”