The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Transport, James Macharia, on March 10 released an investigation report on the crash of Bell 505 helicopter.
The crash occurred at the Central Island National Park in Lake Turkana, Turkana County on March 3, 2019.
CS Macharia has placed the blame on darkness, the pilot’s unfamiliarity with the helicopter and also on the pilot’s negligence.
“Investigations of the accident involving 5Y-KDL determined the facts, conditions and circumstances of the accident and concluded that the accident was most likely due to the pilot’s spatial disorientation in the dark night conditions that led to the loss of control of the aircraft and subsequent inflight collision with terrain.
“Another contributing factor to the accident was initiation of the flight without a comprehensive pre-flight evaluation, consequently assigning the flight to a pilot who was not in conformance with the necessary flight experience requirement of the aircraft type,” the CS said.
The investigation on what caused the crash was conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Department (AAID). The department also issued safety recommendations in its Final Report to Helicopter manufacturers and (Kwae Island Development Limited) KIDL.
The recommendations include manufacturers equipping turbine-powered helicopters with crash-resistance systems capable of recording flight data, cockpit audio and images; KIDL to ensure compliance with their approved procedures and the enhancement of training of flight crew in threat management.
The helicopter, owned by (KIDL), crashed with five people on board. Four were American nationals and one (the pilot) was a Kenyan.
The Kenyan pilot was identified as Capt. Marious Magonga while the four Americans were identified as Andres Asher, Jesiah Burke, Brandon Howe and Kyle John Forti. Capt. Magonga had been trained in the Kenya Defence Forces(KDF) and had more than 5,500 hours of experience on single and multi-engine types.
At the time of the crash, the helicopter was headed to Lobolo camp from Lake Turkana.
According to the Director-General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) Gilbert Kibe, rescuers found the wreckage early morning of March 4 2019.
“Shortly after take-off, unfortunately, one of the helicopters, a Bell 505, registration 5Y-KDL, lost contact and crashed on the island,” Kibe said.
