Saitoti copter ‘lacked maintenance manual’

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By PETER NG’ETICH pngetich@ke.nationmedia.com WINNIE-MOLLY OWUOR wowuor@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Thursday, September 20  2012 at  22:30

IN SUMMARY

Pilot changed last minute

• One of the pilots of the ill-fated chopper was changed at the eleventh hour, Mr Wafula told the inquest
• He said Commandant Rogers Mbithi was to fly with Ms Nancy Gituanja, but he was replaced by Captain Luke Oyugi.
• He said the weekly duty roster, which was prepared at the start of the week, was not followed.

The helicopter that crashed in June killing former Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and five others did not have a maintenance manual.

A witness on Thursday told an inquiry into the accident that the Kenya Police was only supplied with one in early June on computer a few days before the crash but they did not have a password.

“The manual did not come with the helicopter because its latest version was being updated. We were told to wait for the new one because the one which was available was an obsolete one for the aircraft,” Kenya Police Airwing Engineer Michael Wafula told the commission led by Court of Appeal Judge Kalpana Rawal at the KICC in Nairobi.

He said that as they were waiting for the latest maintenance manual, they decided to extract some contents from the flight manual to carry out routine maintenance.

The witness also admitted that the Police Airwing was casual in keeping records of the aircraft, which came down at Kibiku in Ngong Forest on June 10.

He said that on the day the helicopter crashed, the weight of the aircraft and that of its six passengers was not indicated anywhere.

No defect was also indicated despite a red light showing in the cockpit, Mr Wafula said.

“In some instances, the date of the flight was not indicated and pilots did not capture defects of the plane in the forms they were supposed to fill,” Mr Wafula, who is also in charge of record keeping, said.

The chopper started showing signs of defects on May 31, five months after its manufacturer, Eurocopter, delivered it.

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He said there was a red light indicating Engine Data Recorder (EDR) failure.

The helicopter was still under a warranty, but he did not know what period it was supposed to cover.