Uganda Crash: 5 soldiers, 2 bodies flown to Nairobi

By Francis Ngige

The burnt chopper at the scene of crash on Mt KEnya. (Photo:Standard)

Five Ugandan soldiers whose helicopters crashed in Mt Kenya have been flown to Wilson Airport in Nairobi.

Also flown were two bodies of Ugandan military personnel who died in the crash.

Four soldiers are still missing and the search continues.

Brigadier Francis Ogolla gave an account of how six the helicopters were involved in the rescue operation.

Two of the Ugandan choppers were partly burned, but the luggage appeared neatly arranged a sign that there was life after the accident.

By the time of the Kenya Defence Forces mid morning press confrence, no details about the two bodies recovered were available. The bodies are yet to be removed from the scene, a pilot involved in the rescue operation confirmed but would not divulge much because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

One aircraft was found hanging on a cliff while another was badly burned, the military official said.

He clarified that a combined team of Kenya Army, Kenya Air force, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and a private aircraft from Tropic Air Aviation services were all involved the rescue mission since Monday.

Brig Ogolla said: “The Kenyan military was fully involved from the onset of rescue but had bigger aircrafts which could not manouvre and land near the crash scene at the forest easily.”

He added: “That is why we used the services of smaller civilian helicopter to help in the rescue mission. We are still fully involved in the operation.”

The Kenyan military official was accompanied by Ugandan Peoples Defence Air force counterpart Brigadier Moses Rwakitarate who said the Ugandan government was waiting for a full report on the accident before issuing a comprehensive statement.

But later there were conflicting reports over the number of survivors. One source claimed that there were eight survivors in total rescued and five of them were earlier flown to Laikipia Airbase.