Saitoti copter got lost soon after take-off, says witness

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Mrs. Margret Saitoti (left) the wife of the late internal Security Minister George Saitoti during the inquiry of chopper crash that killed her husband and Assistant minister Orwa Ojode at KICC on 24th July 2012. Photo/DENNIS OKEYO 

By VINCENT AGOYA vagoya@ke.natuionmedia.com
Posted  Friday, September 21  2012 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• Chopper could not be located on the radar five minutes into the flight, says Wilson police chief
• He said he received communication from the control room informing him that the helicopter could not be traced and its pilots could not be reached on radio.

The chopper that crashed killing Internal Security minister George Saitoti and five others could not be tracked on radar soon after take-off, an inquest looking into the accident heard on Friday.

A message from the control tower at Wilson Airport, Nairobi, was circulated seven minutes into the fateful flight that the aircraft had “disappeared” and that the aircrew could not be reached, according to Wilson Airport police chief Benjamin Kiprono.

“It was not normal for an aircraft to take off and be lost within less than five minutes,” Chief Inspector Kiprono told the commission led by Appellate Judge Kalpana Rawal at KICC in Nairobi.

He said he received communication from the control room informing him that the helicopter could not be traced and its pilots could not be reached on radio.

“We knew something had gone wrong,” the witness said, adding that they immediately jumped into another police aircraft and embarked on “a search and rescue mission towards Ngong.”

But the police officer could not tell the person who sent out the chilling message, saying he presumed it came from an officer manning the control tower. He said he heard it over the police radio handset and rushed to where his colleagues were at the airport.

“The commandant already knew of the accident,” he said.

While they were still airborne, the witness said, he received a call on his mobile phone that the helicopter had crashed killing everyone on board.

Mr Kiprono said they flew towards Kibiku area and upon landing at a school near the crash site they found the scene had been taken over by officers from Ngong Police Station.

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Another witness Thomas Saiyan Sikempei, who oversees security at the airport, said the burden of the helicopters security lay squarely on the operator of the police airwing.

He denied that Kenya Airport Authority personnel were involved in any way with the aircraft while its was kept at a hangar at Wilson Airport.

So far 26 witnesses have testified. Hearing resumes on Monday.