Three people have been confirmed dead in the helicopter crash which happened on Thursday night around the Federal University of Technology in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.
The military said in a terse statement posted on Defence Headquarters blog that the victims were crew members aboard the helicopter.
“At about 2200hours yesterday 13 November 2014, a ground attack helicopter on an armed patrol crashed around the Federal University of Technology Yola, Adamawa State,” the military said in the statement.
“The crew of three was lost in the ill-fated accident. Rescue party worked throughout the night to preserve the wreckage of the aircraft and scene of the accident for proper investigation to be carried out. Further details would be made known later.”
The helicopter crashed less than three days after another one on surveillance mission went down in Damare, a suburb of Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa state. No life was lost in that incident.
The spokesperson of the Nigerian Air Force, Dele Alonge, an Air Commodore, had confirmed the Thursday night’s incident but said that “one thing is clear, the helicopter did not come under enemy fire. It has nothing to do with the enemy.”
Another chopper on surveillance mission had on Monday crashed at Damare, also in Girei Local Government, and defence Headquarters later said no one died in the incident.
PRNigeria, an agency that distributes press statements for Nigerian security agencies, said Friday that “since the Boko Haram campaign of terror commenced in full scale in the North East states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states, the Nigerian Air Force has flown at least 6,000 missions in efforts to rid the zone of insurgency”.
It added, “The missions, aiming to decimate, degrade, destabilise and demoralise the Boko Haram terrorists with a view to completely curtailing their freedom of actions, comprised ground attacks platforms, mission on ATR-42, Beechcraft air surveillance platform, airlift missions using the G-222 and the C-130H.
“Chief of Air Staff of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, said at a recent forum at the University of Ibadan that the scope of the operations included airlift of troops and equipment, rotation of forces, battlefield interdiction, casualty evacuation, air surveillance, and armed reconnaissance missions among other operations.”
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