Pilots ‘queried safety of copter’
PHOTO | JENNIFER MUIRURI Police Airwing Engineer Humprey Bulimu testifies before the helicopter crash commission at the KICC on September 17, 2012.
What you need to know:
- Police Airwing Engineer Humprey Bulimu said Captain Oyugi had told him to delay the flight by about 15 minutes to wait for assistant minister Orwa Ojodeh to arrive, but a woman at the control tower, whom he identified only as Purity, declined
- The commission led by Appeal court judge Kalpana Rawal heard that Captains Gituanja and Oyugi met Eurocopter engineer Aristide on the eve of the fateful day at Dambusters Club near Wilson Airport where they raised concerns over the condition of the aircraft
- It also emerged that Mr Bulimu does not have a licence from Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to service any aircraft although he had worked on it 33 times of the 80 times it had been serviced
The pilots of the helicopter that crashed killing former Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and five others raised concerns about the state of the aircraft, but nothing was done.
The commission of inquiry investigating the accident was on Monday told that Captain Luke Oyugi, who was the co-pilot of Captain Nancy Gituanja, had also asked the control tower to delay the flight, but they declined.
Police Airwing Engineer Humprey Bulimu said Captain Oyugi had told him to delay the flight by about 15 minutes to wait for assistant minister Orwa Ojodeh to arrive, but a woman at the control tower, whom he identified only as Purity, declined.
“The lady told me there was no need because it was still several minutes to 9am, which was the departure time,” he said.
The commission led by Appeal court judge Kalpana Rawal heard that Captains Gituanja and Oyugi met Eurocopter engineer Aristide on the eve of the fateful day at Dambusters Club near Wilson Airport where they raised concerns over the condition of the aircraft.
Lawyer Ashford Muriuki, representing the Gituanja family, while cross-examining the witness, said he had instructions that the two pilots met with the engineer and informed him about a failure signal they had noticed.
The witness could neither confirm nor deny the allegations, saying he left the two pilots with the engineer and was not in a position to tell what they talked about afterwards.
It also emerged that Mr Bulimu does not have a licence from Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to service any aircraft although he had worked on it 33 times of the 80 times it had been serviced.
“But it (licence) is not very necessary because I knew what I was doing. It is just a document,” Mr Bulimu responded when asked about the certification.
On the morning of the fateful day, Mr Bulimu himself did the pre-flight servicing to the copter just hours before it crashed.
“I moved the aircraft to the VIP parking area and performed the pre-flight inspection, but did not notice anything unusual”, he added.
