Black box of crashed helicopter found

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), on Friday announced that it had recovered the black box of the Bristow helicopter that crashed into a lagoon in the Oworonshoki area of Lagos on Wednesday.

Felix Abali, commissioner of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), made this known while displaying the two devices to aviation correspondents at the bureau’s headquarters in Lagos.

Abali said with the recovery, full investigation to unravel the cause of the incident would get underway.

He explained that the bureau would analyse information from the black box and make its findings public.

“We are still in custody of these two devices and we will take them to our laboratory in Abuja,” he said.

“The information will be downloaded before it is analysed to retrieve vital information in preparation for the final report.

“The flight data recorder will show us the speed, altitude of the helicopter, while the cockpit voice recorder will reveal the conversation between the pilots and the control tower in Lagos.”

Abali could not give a definite period when the investigation would be concluded but said his team will put in its best.

“Like any other investigation, we cannot give a specific time-line as it can take any twists and turns,” he said.

“All we can do to hasten the investigation is that we have competent investigators that will do their best, but we cannot tell when we will finish the report.”

Abali said the search party, led by Julius Berger, with the assistance of a hired diver, located the recorders.

The flight recorder, also called black box contains the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR).

The biggest part of the wreckage of the ill-fated aircraft was recovered on Thursday but without the black box which was eventually found on Friday.

Twelve people were on board the aircraft which was heading to Lagos from an oil rig in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

While six persons survived and are responding to treatment at St. Nicholas hospital in Lagos Island, six persons lost their lives in the unfortunate incident.

The airline has not made the flight manifest public.