Lagosians relive helicopter crash

By Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo & Benjamin Omoike

Daily Times reports that some residents of Salvation Road in Opebi area of Ikeja, Lagos have expressed shock over the crash of a helicopter into a building, thanking God for saving their lives.

One Mrs Grace Awolaja said it was shocking and surprising to experience such an unexpected incident.

According to Awolaja, the helicopter was seen hovering in the sky for some minutes before crashing into the building.

“We thank God that nobody was affected in the building but l learnt that the pilot and two people died,’’ she said.

Another resident, Alhaji Saliu Bamidele, suggested that engine seizure might be responsible for the crash.

Bamidele said that the helicopter crashed at the back of house No. 16, Salvation Road, damaging two cars and the fence of the building.

Mr Mark Okeke, a fabric shop owner in front of the building, said that the helicopter was seen in the air struggling to crashland in the canal but “suddenly picked up and faced the building’’.

“We just heard loud sound with heavy dust from the house. Many occupants of the building were not at home. However, the pilot and three others on board of the helicopter were found dead.

Meanwhile, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji, expressed sadness over the unfortunate crash of the Quorum Aviation helicopter in Lagos on Friday.

Nnaji also extended his sympathies to the families of the dead three occupants of the ill fated copter as well as the management and staff of Quorom Aviation.

He declared that, “we must also be thankful to God that we didn’t record any ground causality, noting that it was a great miracle that such crash could occur within a residential area in a city so populated like Lagos without any ground casualties.

He however urged the officials of the Air Accidents Investigation Bureau, (AIB) and other agencies that would be collaborating with them in the investigation to do their best to unravel the cause of the accident.

He said it was regrettable that the unfortunate incident occurred just a few minutes to the final destination which was Murtala Mohammed Airport after flying several nautical miles all the way from Port Harcourt.

Nnaji equally appealed to the members of the public to always avoid crowding an aircraft crash site because their lives could be endangered.

He said such rush could impede proper air accident investigation in the event that certain components that could aid investigation get tampered with.

The lawmaker said he was surprised at the amount of crowd that besieged the scene of the crash, saying there was urgent need to enlighten the public on the consequences of crowding air crash scenes due to the danger of possible explosion.

Similarly, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the weekend visited the site of the helicopter crash to assess the extent of damage caused by the crash.

Speaking to journalists after looking round the crash site and meeting with the owners of the affected buildings, the Governor promised that Lagos State Government will carry out integrity tests on the buildings and do necessary repairs and assist the affected families.

Sanwo-Olu also sympathised with the families of the three people that lost their loved ones during the crash and prayed that God will comfort the families of the deceased.

He said: “I am here to do a real on-the-spot assessment and I have seen things for myself. We thank God that as painful as the incident might be, the damage was not beyond what we have witnessed.

We are pained by the death of the three people on board but we thank God because it could have been worse than that.

The affected buildings are residential homes that have citizens living there.

As at the exact time the helicopter crash happened, a lot of people were not in the premises and even the elderly people that were around and in their rooms.

READ ALSO: Lagos helicopter crash: How pilot tried to save lives

But as God would have it, nothing in term of fatality happened to people on the ground. So, we need to thank God.

If not, fatality may have been a lot more than what we are talking about.

“As you can see the people affected are senior citizens; they are people in their 80s and 70s that I have come to condole with and also thank God for them.

We have seen the level of destruction and damages.