Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu on Saturday, visited the scene of the helicopter crash on Salvation Road Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos, and promised affected residents that his government would ensure they get respite.
The governor, who said he was out of town on Friday when the crash occurred, met with residents of the affected buildings and rejoiced with them that no casualty was recorded on the ground.
He said: “I’m here to do a real on-the-spot assessment and I’ve seen things for myself, and after the condolences, it’s also to now thank God that as painful as the incidence might be, it also has not come with a lot of ground collateral damages.
“These are two buildings that are residential with citizens living there and as God will have it, as at the exact time when this thing happened, a lot of people were not in the premises and the elderly people were in the rooms and nothing in terms of fatality happened to people on the ground.
“We have seen the level of destruction and damages and immediately, they have taken the samples and tests are being conducted to ascertain the integrity of the buildings around and once that is done, we will start working with Federal Government agencies and start the reconstruction and renovation of places affected; the rooms, walls, fence and ensure that we bring respite quickly to these senior citizens affected and whatever other support we can give them to reduce the hardship they might have gone through.”
The Bell 206 helicopter, belonging to Quorum Aviation, was traveling in from Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, when it crashed into a residential building in the Opebi area of Lagos State. All the three occupants died in the crash. Two died on the spot, while the third victim died hours later in the hospital.
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) said on Friday, it had recovered the Black box and had commenced an investigation to unravel the cause of the crash.