The investigative committee that probed the August 6, 2025, military helicopter crash has dismissed reports suggesting that the aircraft exploded midair, confirming instead that the explosion occurred only upon impact.
At a public briefing in Accra on Tuesday, November 11, Captain (Rtd) Paul Forjoe, a member of the committee, clarified that the Z-9 helicopter was mechanically sound before the crash and that there was no in-flight explosion as earlier speculated.
“In terms of the explosion, there was no explosion before,” Captain Forjoe stated. “The Z-9 helicopter’s fuel tank is under where the passengers sit. It had been fuelled up well, so it was on impact that the explosion took place.”
He added that the aircraft was declared airworthy before takeoff and had been signed off by the captain. “The helicopter was in good working condition but lacked some avionic safety enhancements,” he said.
Captain Forjoe, however, cautioned against directly blaming the absence of those enhancements for the tragedy.
“If you have all these other enhancements, the Air Force would be happy to have them because they know what it would help them do, and it will make our dignitaries much safer when they fly. But it doesn’t mean that because those enhancements were not there, that is why the accident happened; it would be wrong to say so,” he stressed.
The aircraft departed Accra around 9:12 a.m. on an anti-illegal mining mission to Obuasi in the Ashanti Region before losing radar contact and crashing in the Adansi Akrofuom District.
The tragedy claimed the lives of eight senior government officials, including Minister for Defence Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, Minister for Environment, Science and Technology Dr. Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, Acting Deputy National Security Coordinator Limuna Muniru, NDC Vice Chairman Samuel Sarpong, NADMO Deputy Director-General Samuel Aboagye, and three Air Force crew members.
Meanwhile, the committee has cited a sudden loss of altitude and lift due to a powerful downdraft over high terrain as the main cause of the crash.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
