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Flights To Eternity: Those Who Took Final Bow In Helicopter Crashes

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Helicopter crashes have taken the lives of thousands of people including high-profile personalities over the decades.

Though it is not as frequent as road crashes, its effect can be very devastating given aircraft altitude to the ground. In most cases, passengers hardly survive the deadly accidents.

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World leaders on Monday joined Iranians in mourning the death of President Ebrahim Raisi whose helicopter crashed into a fog-shrouded mountain on Sunday.

Raisi, 63; his foreign minister and seven others died when the aircraft went down in a remote area of northwestern Iran, where the wreckage was only found on Monday morning. They were all confirmed dead by state authorities.

The latest helicopter crash in Iran happens to be one of the most recent aircraft accidents widely reported.

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It is coming in about three months after the death of a former Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe who died in a helicopter crash that took place in the United States in February. Wigwe’s death sparked concerns across the globe.

The CEO, his wife and son, as well as a former group chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, died in the crash in California.

Also, Chile’s former President Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire tycoon, died in a helicopter crash on February 6, 2024.

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An Aljazeera report said Chile’s Interior Minister, Carolina Toha, confirmed the death of the former president but did not give details.

Chile’s national disaster agency SENAPRAD confirmed that three people were also injured.

READ ALSO: List Of Persons On Board Iranian President’s Missing Helicopter

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In January 2020, United States basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, and his daughter, Gianna, were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash in the city of Calabasas, also in California.

Bryant, 41, and Gianna, 13, were travelling in a private helicopter when it went down and burst into flames, according to a report by BBC. The county sheriff said there were no survivors.

Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, played for the LA Lakers throughout his career and was considered one of the greatest players in the game’s history.

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A former owner of Leicester City FC, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, also died when his helicopter crashed outside the stadium, according to his club which confirmed the incident.

The billionaire, two members of his staff, the pilot and a passenger were killed when the aircraft spiralled out of control and crashed in a fireball on October 28, 2018.

It had just cleared the King Power Stadium when it came down around 8:30pm.

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A former Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa, was killed in a helicopter crash along with other senior officials on December 15, 2012.

Yakowa and a former national security adviser, Gen. Owoye Azazi, were on the helicopter that came down in Bayelsa.

Between 1989 and 2024, over 1000 fatalities have been recorded in Nigeria in over 70 plane crashes, according to data from Geneva-based Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives retrieved from its website on Wednesday.

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The Bureau noted that the worst plane crash happened in Nigeria on June 3, 2012, when 159 persons were killed.

READ ALSO: Security Guard Stabs Man To Death In Anambra Church

Mechanical failure and pilot error were blamed for the 2012 air crash, according to accident investigators in a report published in 2017, five years after the incident.

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A Boeing MD-83 aircraft was carrying 153 passengers and crew when it crashed into a densely-populated area in the north of Lagos and burst into flames. Six people were killed on the ground.

The Accident Investigation Bureau said two engines on the doomed Dana Air flight from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, failed mid-air before it crashed on approach to Lagos airport.

“Engine number one lost power 17 minutes into the flight, and thereafter on final approach, engine number two lost power and failed to respond to throttle movement on demand for increased power to sustain the aircraft in its flight configuration,” the report stated.

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The “inappropriate omission of the use of the checklist and the crew’s inability to appreciate the severity of the power-related problem, and their subsequent failure to land at the nearest suitable airfield” also contributed to the crash, it added.

Associated Press also highlighted helicopter crashes in other countries that dated from 1977.

On August 1, 1977, a pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, Francis Gary Powers, was killed when the KNBC-TV news helicopter he was piloting ran out of fuel and crashed near Encino, California.

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On July 23, 1982, actor Vic Morrow, star of the ABC series “Combat!” and child actors Myca Dinh and Renee Chen were killed on the ground when a helicopter crashed into them on the set of “Twilight Zone: The Movie” in Indian Dunes, California.

A helicopter carrying guitarist, singer and songwriter Stevie Vaughan slammed into a hillside in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, after an outdoor concert, killing Vaughan and all four others onboard on August 27, 1990, AP reported.

On October 25, 1991, Rock concert promoter Bill Graham and two other people died when their helicopter hit a utility tower and crashed near Vallejo, California.

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READ ALSO: UK Regulator Reports Air Peace Over Alleged Safety Violation

Also, Davey Allison, who was the 1992 Daytona 500 winner, died on July 13, 1993, after a helicopter he was piloting crashed at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.

On September 17, 2017, Troy Gentry, who was part of the country music duo Montgomery Gentry, was killed in a helicopter crash in Medford, New Jersey.

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Helicopter crashes raise critical questions about safety measures, the role of weather conditions and risk mitigation strategies.

At the heart of some of the helicopter crashes could also be mechanical failures capable of compromising the integrity of these aerial vehicles.

Recall that in April the family of the late Chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, who died in the helicopter crash alongside Wigwe, filed a lawsuit against the US helicopter company.

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The Ogunbanjo family stated that the flight should have been grounded because of treacherous weather.

One of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, Andrew Robb, noted that Ogunbanjo’s family were seeking “answers and accountability.”

“Helicopters do not do very well in snow and ice,” Robb told Associated Press. “This flight was entirely preventable, and we don’t know why they took off,” he added.

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The US National Transportation Safety Board had confirmed that law enforcement and witnesses observed the helicopter transporting Wigwe engulfed in flames before it crashed.

In its report on the crash, the Board added that witnesses also reported the weather conditions in the area were “not good” and raining with a snow mix.

READ ALSO: Catholic Monk Comes Out As Transgender, Urges Church To Embrace Trans Members

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In Iran, pictures from the site of Raisi’s helicopter crash indicated poor weather conditions as the atmosphere was filled with fog that even made rescue officials find it difficult to get to the crash site in time.

Meanwhile, some reports raised questions about the mechanical condition of the helicopter that transported Raisi and other officials.

According to Aljazeera, the US-manufactured chopper – Two-blade Bell 212, that Raisi was travelling on, is believed to have been decades old.

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The media house cited foreign sanctions on Iran which dated back to 1979 over its nuclear programme and anti-US stance.

This, it gathered, made it difficult for the country to obtain aircraft parts or new aircraft thereby frustrating the maintenance of old ones.

Since the first US sanctions on Iran 45 years ago, the Iranian economy has continued to take hits, and its airlines have in particular been impacted, the report published Monday stated.

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Between 1979 and 2024, Iran plane crashes have killed over 2000 people in over 70 accidents, according to data from the Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives retrieved from its website on Wednesday.

The worst aircraft accident in the country was in 1988 in which 290 fatalities were recorded.

On August 10, 2014, BBC reported that at least 38 people were killed when a small passenger plane crashed near the Iranian capital, Tehran.

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The aircraft, which was heading to the eastern city of Tabas, went down after take-off in a residential area near Mehrabad airport on a Sunday morning.

The passengers included at least five children, according to the aviation authority.

Initial reports said all passengers on board the plane had been killed, but state media later reported that some passengers had been injured and transferred to hospital.

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The report further highlighted that Iran had suffered a series of plane crashes, blamed on its ageing aircraft and poor maintenance record.

Source: PUNCH

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Syrian Ex-leader Assad Faces War Crime Charges For Killing Journalists

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French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and six other top former officials over the bombardment of a rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists, lawyers said Tuesday.

Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times of Britain, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed on February 22, 2012, by the explosion in the eastern city of Homs, which is being investigated by the French judiciary as a potential crime against humanity as well as a war crime.

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British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier, and Syrian translator Wael Omar were wounded in the attack on the informal press centre where they had been working.

READ ALSO:France’s Top Court Annuls Arrest Warrant Against Syria’s Ex-president al-Assad

Assad escaped with his family to Russia after being ousted by Islamist rebels at the end of 2024, although his precise whereabouts have not been confirmed.

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Other than Assad, the warrants notably target his brother Maher al-Assad, who was the de facto head of the 4th Syrian armoured division at the time, intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk, and then-army chief of staff Ali Ayoub.

The issuing of the seven arrest warrants is a decisive step that paves the way for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” said Clemence Bectarte, lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Ochlik’s parents.

READ ALSO:US Embassy Warns Americans In Nigeria Of Looming Visa Overstay Penalties

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The FIDH said the journalists had clandestinely entered the besieged city to “document the crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime” and were victims of a “targeted bombing”.

The investigation clearly established that the attack on the informal press centre was part of the Syrian regime’s explicit intention to target foreign journalists to limit media coverage of its crimes and force them to leave the city and the country,” said Mazen Darwish, lawyer and director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM).

Colvin was known for her fearless reporting and signature black eye patch, which she wore after losing sight in one eye in an explosion during Sri Lanka’s civil war. Her career was celebrated in a Golden Globe-nominated film, “A Private War”.

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Ghana’s President Sacks Chief Justice Over Corruption Allegations

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President John Dramani Mahama has dismissed the Chief Justice of Ghana following the outcome of a high-level investigation into allegations of falsifying judicial records and misusing public funds.

A five-member commission, chaired by a Supreme Court judge and set up by Mahama, concluded that the allegations against the country’s top judicial officer were substantiated and recommended her removal.

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After considering the petition and the evidence, the Committee found that the grounds of stated misbehaviour under Article 146(1) had been established and recommended her removal from office,” said the spokesperson to the President, Felix Ofosu, in a statement on Monday.

READ ALSO:Police Bust Lagos-Ghana Sex Trafficking Ring

President John Dramani Mahama has accordingly removed the Chief Justice from office with immediate effect.”

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The dismissal marks the first time a sitting Chief Justice in Ghana has been investigated and dismissed from office.

While Mahama, who took office in January, has repeatedly pledged to intensify the fight against corruption, it remains unclear whether the embattled Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkonoo, will face criminal prosecution.

 

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Danish Court Sentences Ex-minister To Prison For Child Abuse Material

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A former Danish government minister was jailed for four months on Monday for possession of thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

Henrik Sass Larsen, once a senior Social Democrat who served as industry minister, admitted to having more than 6,000 photographs and 2,000 videos on his computer depicting sexual abuse of children.

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He had denied the charges, saying he had the material because he was trying to find out who had abused him as a child.

Prosecutor Maria Cingari said she was “satisfied” with the verdict but added that it was sad that someone “who managed to make the most out of their life despite a bad start finds himself in such a situation.”

READ ALSO:JUST IN: Finnish Court Jails Simon Ekpa Six Years For Terrorism Offences

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You should never be in possession of child pornography, no matter the reason,” Cingari added.

During his trial, the 59-year-old told the court he had received a link in 2018 to a 50-year-old video showing him being sexually abused when he was three years old.

He testified that he received another video clip in 2020, in which a three-year-old girl was raped in his presence when he was around the same age.

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The two videos disappeared after he viewed them, he said.

READ ALSO:South African Court Affirms 18-year Jail Term For Nigerian Over Human Trafficking

He told the court he regretted not having contacted the police when he received the videos.

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Sass Larsen was also accused of being in possession of a child sex doll, but the court did not find him guilty on that charge.

His lawyer, Berit Ernst, told reporters that “we’ll see if it is a definitive end or if we will appeal.”

The scandal came to light last March and led to his expulsion from the Social Democratic Party.

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At the time, Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen expressed her shock over the case.

AFP

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