Saitoti copter ‘allowed to fly with defect’

A helicopter that claimed the lives of Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and his deputy Orwa Ojodeh was allowed to fly despite the presence of a signal showing a technical defect two days before the accident, it has emerged.

A commission inquiring into the plane crash in which four officers were also killed heard that the police technical team allowed it to take to the sky without attending to the defective parts shown on the cockpit instrumentation.

The Police Airwing flight technicians, the commission was further told, never bothered to certify that the helicopter was in good condition to fly. (READ: Saitoti chopper crash pilot ‘was not cleared by expert’)

A quality manager at the airwing, based at the Wilson Airport, said two days before the crash, a light detector had popped up on the cockpit, signalling a defect that needed to be repaired before allowing the helicopter to fly.

Mr Morris Oketch Ouma said that when he alerted his colleagues about the defect signal, he was brushed off and told the aircraft was fit to fly.

Giving his evidence, Mr Ouma said the aircraft, manufactured by France’s Eurocopter, experienced the first defect on May 31, prompting a replacement of the defective equipment.

He said it also showed a distress signal on June 8 — two days before the crash.

The government established the commission chaired by Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal to inquire into the June 10 plane crash, which also killed pilots Nancy Gituanja, Bob Oyugi and the ministers’ two bodyguards at Kibiku area in Ngong.

Mr Oketch said he was in a team that flew the aircraft to Voi on June 8, and brought it back to Nairobi where he noticed that the engine data recording lights had turned on, signalling a defect. “I could not tell whether it was normal or not,” he said.

He said when he drew the attention of his colleagues to the light, he was told it was fine and the aircraft was pushed into a hangar.

Mr Oketch said a perusal of documents revealed that there was a scheduled flight on June 9, which was later cancelled before the tragic flight the day after.

“I came to the police airwing at around 8am to supervise the pre-flight inspection. I found the aircraft had been pushed out of the hangar and a team had already carried out the pre-flight procedures and were standing outside the aircraft,” he recounted events minutes before the tragic flight.

He said he saw Prof Saitoti and Mr Ojodeh exit the waiting lounge and board the aircraft before being strapped to their seats by the two crews.

“After take-off, we did not notice anything unusual but after 10 minutes a colleague, an electrician, called me saying his sister had informed him that a police aircraft had crashed in Kibiku area,” he said.