The Nigeria navy executive Agusta 109E helicopter, which crashed yesterday killing Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former NSA Andrew Owoye Azazi and four others, had engine failure, naval sources have said. SaharaReporters learned that the pilot of the helicopter communicated with the control tower in Port Harcourt to report the problem before it crashed to the ground and caught fire. The chopper belonged to the Nigeria navy, but it had been placed at the exclusive service of the president in the Niger Delta region.
The navy has had three Agusta 109E helicopters. In 2007, one of them crashed due to bad weather as it approached the Owerri airport in the night, accompanying INEC election materials. Four persons died in the crash. The other two, NN07 and NN08, which actively worked the Bayelsa airspace yesterday, were commissioned in 2009.
