The Police Force on Thursday denied the crash of its helicopter in Bauchi.
According to reports, a helicopter belonging to the Nigerian
Police Force crashed in Bauchi on Wednesday, injuring six persons.
Reacting to the development, the Force Public Relations
Officer, CP Frank Mba told The Nation in Abuja that the helicopter
did not crash, explaining that the pilot only had a controlled landing.
Mba clarified that the helicopter took off from Abuja and got to Bauchi around 7am but the pilot discovered that there was no light on the runway.
“And incidentally the runway lights were off. So visibility
was an issue. They hovered around the airport hoping that somebody would
turn-on the light.
“They tried to reach them on the communication set, nobody
was on the control towel and at the end of the day they had no choice but to do
a control landing. And they landed safely.
“The only thing that happened is that very close to where
they landed the tail rotor hit a branch of a tree. So the only damage they had
was to the tail rotor.
“And there were six persons onboard and nobody was injured.
And there was no major damage to the plane”.