It has been reported that the helicopter which recently crashed near Port Harcourt in Rivers State, registered as 5N-BQG, was actually a Sikorsky SK76c helicopter scrapped in 2018.
The new information rises from Sahara Reporters and questions the true cause of the unfortunate crash that claimed lives off the coast of Bonny Finima on Thursday, October 24th.
The helicopter, owned by EastWind Aviation, was transporting contract workers to the FPSO—NUIMS ANTAN facility when it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.
The helicopter with manufacturer’s serial number (MSN) 760486 was manufactured in 1997.
Checks by SaharaReporters revealed that the helicopter was first delivered to Helikopter Service as SE-JFB. It was then bought by another aviation company in Hong Kong and registered as B-KCR. In 2004, the helicopter was bought by a Nigerian airline, Aero Contractors and registered as 5N-BGN.
In 2009, CHC Global Ops in Canada bought the chopper from Aero Contractors, registering it as C-FXXV. It was outsourced to Premiair, an aviation services and aircraft management operator based in Indonesia between June 2011 and July 2013.
The helicopter was then taken back by CHC Global Ops, a Canadian aviation company, maintaining the same registration number, C-FXXV.
According to Flickr, an online community founded in Canada, the chopper registration number was cancelled in September 2018 after it was “presumably scrapped.”
Scrapped helicopters described aircraft that have been permanently retired from service and deemed unusable. They are not expected to return to operational status and are typically sold for salvage or dismantled for parts.
Sahara Reporters were unable to verify how the Sikorsky SK76c helicopter was moved to Nigeria and registered as 5N-BQG before it crashed on Thursday.
On Sunday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) said that five persons were still missing, insisting that only three bodies had been recovered since the incident occurred on Thursday.
