8 rescued from Ugandan choppers wreckage

Two Ugandan soldiers have been confirmed dead in a helicopter crash in Mount Kenya as eight of their colleagues were rescued and evacuated from the mountain on Tuesday afternoon.

Five others are still missing, amid fears that they may have perished in one of the choppers that burst into flames although their bodies are yet to be found.

All survivors from the three crashes are presumed to have been rescued, with only the recovery of bodies of the dead remaining. Seven soldiers were rescued on Monday.

KWS senior Mount Kenya warden Simon Gitau said a search and rescue team found two more wreckages barely a kilometre from the one found on Monday.

“We found two bodies, one of the pilot still strapped in the seat, and another a few metres away. The helicopter was burnt to ashes in the middle,” said Mr Gitau.

The eight survivors were all from the third chopper which was found upside down at the base of a valley. The survivors had walked from the wreckage towards the rainforest.

A mission to retrieve the bodies of two soldiers from the burnt wreckage on Mount Kenya was put off until Wednesday morning because a helicopter with Kenya Airforce and KWS personnel could not land due to bad weather.

The Tropic Air helicopter could not land as a dense cloud had engulfed the southern slopes.

“The search team that had assembled at the crash site with dogs to track them was called off after the Ugandan soldiers communicated with KDF and indicated where they could be picked up,” said Mr Gitau.

They were picked up by two helicopters from Tropic Air. The distance between the three aircraft was less than a kilometre, with Mr Gitau saying that flying around Mt Kenya is especially treacherous in bad weather.

Earlier in the morning, Laikipia airbase commander Francis Ogolla said the four helicopters had taken off from Nanyuki on Sunday at 4.20pm but the three had gone down in bad weather 30 minutes later. (READ: Ugandan army helicopters go missing in Kenya)

Addressing the Press at the Laikipia Airbase, Brigadier Ogolla said a search and rescue team had reached one of the helicopters in the morning and found that the entire crew had been evacuated.

A team has been dispatched to try and trace the crew, who are thought to be trying to make their way down the mountain. Also at the briefing was the Chief of Staff of the Uganda People’s Defence Airforce, Brigadier Moses Rwakitarate.

Brig Rwakitarate refused to comment on the crashes, but he refuted claims that the helicopters did not have enough safety equipment such as flares and beacons. “That is not true. We shall discuss the details of the flights later when we find out more,” said Brig Rwakitarate.

Brig Ogolla said that four helicopters left Nanyuki airstrip at 4.20pm destined for Somalia, but less than 30 minutes later, the Ugandan Air Force attaché at Laikipa air base received a distress call from the pilot of one of the helicopters saying they had run into difficulties due to bad weather on the mountain.

The four helicopters were flying in formation, but only the lead chopper arrived safely at Garissa an hour after take-off from Nanyuki.

Kenya’s Chief of Defence Staff Julius Karangi says the ill-fated helicopters had been cleared and undergone the normal formalities to transit the Kenyan air space.

Gen Karangi told the parliamentary committee on Defence and Foreign relations that the Kenya Defence Forces knew the four aircraft would be flying over Kenyan airspace as they headed to Mogadishu, Somalia.

Responding to questions before the team chaired by Wajir West MP Adan Keynan, the Chief of Defence Staff dismissed claims that the Kenya Defence Forces was slow in responding to the crash.

“We had clear arrangements for fuelling the helicopters because they could not fly to Mogadishu directly. They had to make several stops,” he said.

Meanwhile, Uganda says a team of inquiry has been formed to look into the accidents.

Emergency landing

Ugandan minister of State for Defence Odongo Jeje said the inquiry was established by President Yoweri Museveni, who is the Commander in-Chief of Ugandan Defence Forces.

He said one of the helicopters made an emergency landing in Mt Kenya and sent a distress call to Nairobi between 7 and 8pm. The minister said the Ugandan Airforce worked with their Kenyan colleagues to plan the routing and logistics within Kenya.

He thanked the Kenyan military and the “entire leadership for their quick response and commitment to the search and rescue mission.”

The minister said the Kenyan military put all their personnel and assets “at our disposal as soon as they received the distress call on Sunday evening.”

“We are making efforts to reach the families of those that are still missing as our hearts are with them. We want to be factual and as sensitive as possible so we appeal for calm as we continue to search for our comrades,” Gen Jeje said.