The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has refuted reports by an online platform which claimed that the helicopter with registration 5NBQG that crashed in Port Harcourt last week was ‘Written Off, Scrapped’ By Canadian Aviation Company in 2018.
The NCAA Director General, Chris Najomo, made this known in a statement describing the statement as untrue.
He 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 prior to 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 cancelled in September 2018 after it was ‘presumably scrapped’. Their report was concluded with a question of how the Helicopter was moved to Nigeria and registered as 5N-BQG before the crash.”
Najomo said, “Based on our records, the following items are stated here to correct the wrong information published by the Sahara reporters on the subject matter:
He explained the process of how aircraft are registered saying: “It is important to state that aircraft can be tracked not only by their registration marks but also by their Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN). The 5N-BQG S76C+Helicopter has its MSN as 760486 while the 5N-BGN S76C+ Helicopter has its MSN as 760468.
“The S76C+ Helicopter with registration marks 5N-BGN and MSN:760468 was initially registered at the age of 7 Years on the 15th July, 2004 with Aero Contractors as the operator and Capital Aviation Services B.V. as the registered owner. The registration was re-issued on the 13th December, 2006when the ownership of the helicopter changed to RBS Aerospace Limited.
“The S76C+ Helicopter with registration marks 5N-BGN and MSN:760468 was de-registered by Aero Contractors on the 18th February, 2009 to Transport Canada.
Last Thursday, a helicopter operated by East Wind Aviation and engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), crashed at about 11:22 a.m. along the waterways in the Rivers State capital. The helicopter 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 according to the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau.
