THE STANDARD By
Allan Mungai |
March 12th 2021 at 00:00:00 GMT +0300
Debris of the chopper that crashed in Turkana county. At least five people died.
A helicopter crash on an island in Lake Turkana in March 2019 has been blamed on the pilot s inexperience and lack of visibility.
According to the investigation report, Mario Magonga, 45, despite having flown for close to 6,000 hours, was inexperienced in flying the Bell 505 helicopter and might not have known how to react to save the situation. All five occupants of the chopper died in the crash.
Flight investigators say the pilot could also have been under pressure from the passengers and himself.
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The Bell 505 had been delivered in 2018 to KIDL Helicopter Operations, a Nairobi-based company specialising in VIP transport.
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The crash occurred at the Central Island National Park in Lake Turkana, Turkana County on March 3, 2019.
CS Macharia has placed the blame on darkness, the pilot’s unfamiliarity with the helicopter and also on the pilot’s negligence.
On 3 March, a helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from a remote island in Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya.
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“Investigations of the accident involving 5Y-KDL determined the facts, conditions and circumstances of the accident and concluded that the accident was most likely due to the pilot’s spatial disorientation in the dark night conditions that led to the loss of control of the aircraft and subsequent inflight collision with terrain.