The last may not have been heard about a Sikorsky SK67, helicopter, registration5N BQG, operated by Eastwind Aviation which had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on October 24,2024, off the coast of Finima, Bonny in the oil-rich Rivers state., killing eight individuals on board.
The helicopter was said to have crashed near Finima, Bonny, at a distance of 1.4 Km, from the starboard side of the floating Producing Storage Offloading , FPSO, , NUIM ANTAN Producing Limited allegedly owned by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, now baptized, Nigeria National Petroleum Company, Limited, NNPCL, with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, by the National Assembly and signed into Law by the then President Muhammadu Buhari, on August 2020.
The Nigerian Safety and Investigation Bureau, SIB, a Multimodal transport safety agency charged with the responsibility of promoting transport safety and conducting objective, thorough and accurate investigations into transport accidents and incidents in Nigeria with the aim of identifying the probable causes and advocating for safety improvements based on its findings appears to have been on top of the Finima air crash incident but that was how far it could.
Given the inability of the Leadership of the SIB, to disclose the probable causes of the Finima, Bonny helicopter crash into the Atlantic, may have informed why the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, under the close watch of Dayo Mobereola, who incidentally was a former Commissioner of Transportation, in Lagos state, during the first term in office of Babajide Sawo-Olu, the incumbent governor of the state, appears set to spill the bean.
The NIMASA, Director General, who may have waited for the SIB, leadership to come out with the findings o’’ to share details of the agency findings from the helicopter crash incident with the International Maritime Organisation, IMO’’, a United Nations, UN, maritime agency.
He noted that on October 24, 2024, the agency, under his Leadership , had received distress signals at the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, MRCC, and 4ci centre of the Deep Blue Project and quickly shared the information with Vice Admiral Emmanuel , Navy, which immediately swung into action by deploying the agency’s specialized Search and Rescue security assets to the crash site ‘’to locate the crashed aircraft and conduct recovery efforts under challenging weather conditions’’.
The NIMASA, Chief Executive Officer, CEO, may have been given the confidence to speak out based on the information that was said to have been contained on the Flight Data Recorder, FDR, and Cockpit Voice Recorder, CVR, , popular, black box , that was said to have been recovered through an inter-agency collaboration.
The three agencies, that were said to have been involved in deploying their personnel to facilitate the recovery of the black box, according to the NIMASA, boss, include the maritime regulatory agency, and Nigerian Navy, SIB, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and NNPCL, including HydroDive and other Local and international search and rescue partners which were said to have had participated in the search of the black box and retrieval of the bodies of the victims of the helicopter crash into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Finima, Bonny.
He had said that with the recovery of the black box, over 80% of the helicopter wreck had been recovered . other items that were said to have been recovered by the Search and Rescue Team from the Navy, HydrDivers and other international partners include rotor, three blades, engine, gear box, cockpit overhead pnels, windows, the Electronic Locator, Transmitter, ELT, and the tail. All the recovered wreck of the helicopter were said to have been kept in a’’ dump barge’’.
Alex Badeh, Jr, Director General, SIB, who had commended the collaborative efforts of the agencies that had participated in the recovery of the black box and retrieval of the transferred to the PSO deck, had described their efforts as commendable.
The SIB, boss, on his part, had alluded to the fact that both not for the fact the Hydro Dive, had deployed a drone ‘’ to conduct an extended aerial search of the area of the crash around the Atlantic ocean Off, the coast of Finima, to locate and retrieve the floating bodies and subsequent transfer to the FPSO , deck despite the weather challenges, it may have been difficult to recover the black box and other wrecks of the helicopter.
The SIB , Leadership had repeatedly said that the Hydro Dive divers who were active on the seabed off the coast of Finima, conducting a thorough sweep based operations based on information on the crash incident and possible location, did a good job by ensuring the retrieval of the helicopter crash victims’ bodies and recovery of the black box may with the support of the Navy.
Meanwhile, those who thinks that the NIMASA, Director General would bow to pressure not to open up on the Finima helicopter crash but leave for the SIB, to do may have to bury the thought.
This is because the NIMASA, helmsman had sounded it loud and clear that that the agency will share information of the helicopter crash incident with the IMO. He was emphatic that NIMASA will report its findings about the Eastwind helicopter crash into the Atlantic ocean to the IMO, using the Global Integrated Shipping Information System, GISIS, facility.
The NIMASA, Director General, who could not hide his feelings was said to have told those who cares to listen that by sharing information about the details of the crash incident off the shore of PortHarcourt, with the IMO, clearly ‘’demonstrates Nigerian’s Commitment to transparency, accountability, and Cooperation within the global maritime Community’’.
Given an insider information, Mobereola, a former Lagos state Commissioner of Transportation, had said that the GISIS, is an online platform that was developed by the UN, maritime agency ‘’to support the timely and accurate reporting incidents, and accidents that had to do with sea, air and land and other essential maritime data.
According to him,the platform enables maritime nations , which are members of the IMO, ‘’to share information crucial to improving safety protocols, updating best practices and fostering International Cooperation’’. As a prelude to getting the root cause of the helicopter crash into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Finima, Bonny, NIMASA, an insider had confirmed is currently with the Navy, SIB and other relevant government agencies to do so and to take all the necessary steps to forestall a future occurrence.
He was said to have reaffirmed the agency’s dedication ‘’to the safety of Nigeria’s maritime domain and the continued strengthening of inter-agency Collaboration, a foundation that was said to have been laid by Bashir Jamoh, immediate past Director General of the agency.
