HELICOPTER CRASH, BRISTOW TO PAY OVER $600,000 AS COMPENSATION TO VICTIMS

Bristow Helicopters is to pay over $600,000 as compensation and damage to victims of the ill-fated helicopter that crashed last Tuesday, killing six persons out the 12 on board.

According to the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), annexe on compensation for crash victims, each victim is entitled to $100,000.
ICAO, a few years ago, raised the compensation to $100,000 from the $10,000, according to the Warsaw Convention.

They are supposed to get $30,000 as initial payments shortly after the accident and then get the remaining $70,000 three months after the crash.

Meanwhile, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) on Sunday, said it had retrieved the transcript (conversation between the control tower and flight crew), when downloaded, will give the exact conversation and all other side talks that transpired between the crew and air traffic controllers.


Tunji Oketunbi, AIB spokesperson, told BuisnessDay that the Bureau, which is still on what he called fact-finding stage, had also retrieved documents on information on the crew, helicopter and the airline from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

He said every information that would aid it in the investigation into the cause of the crash was already being sought for, adding that until all these were gotten, the Bureau would not go to the laboratory to download the content of the flight recorders, popularly known as black boxes, to the Sikosky 76 helicopter.

“We are still on fact finding stage, we have retrieved some documents from NCAA, NAMA and FAAN, we have retrieved the transcript from transcript of the flight from air traffic controllers; records of the aircraft from the airline and everything related to the aircraft.

“We have gotten information on the crew, aircraft and all these will form part of the information we will work on before we start doing the downloading and analysis of the black boxes, we are at the fact finding stage for now. We are still going to interview people, we will interview surviving passengers and eye witnesses”, he said.

The black boxes were retrieved from the lagoon on Friday, which are expected to assist the investigators in unravelling the cause of the accident.

The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) contains data generated from different parts of the aircraft including the engines and the avionics while the Cockpit Voice Recorder will unveil conversations within the cockpit and between the pilots and the Control Tower.

The Sikosky 76 helicopter marked 5N-BGD and operated by Bristow Helicopters was believed to have departed SEDCO oil platform offshore and crashed shortly before landing at Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.