The bodies of the remaining two persons missing from Wednesday’s Bristow helicopter crash in Lagos have been recovered by the search and rescue team, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
NAN reports that the bodies, recovered at about 10:25am on Thursday were that of a white man and a black.
The bodies were brought to the shore at 10:45am.
Sources said the white man was the helicopter’s pilot, while the black man was the co-pilot.
The bodies had been taken to the Mainland Hospital by Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit.
NAN observed that while the search team was still looking for the two persons, some relations of the victims besieged the scene looking for their loved ones.
The General Manager of LASEMA, Mr Michael Akindele, who briefed the media jointly with Dr Onimode Bamdele, South-West Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the rescue and search mission had been concluded.
Akindele said that though the bodies had been recovered, they could not give names of the victims because they are yet to get the manifest.
He commended the local divers, Marine Police, Lagos State Waterways Authority; the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and others for a job well done.
Akindele said the second phase of the operation would be handled by the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) of the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
He said the agency would determine how the remains of the helicopter would be evacuated from the water.
Mr Clement Onyeyiri, Senior Investigator, Air Safety of AIB, said that as at now, all they knew was that there was an accident and that its nature was yet unknown.
Hajia Binta Bello, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Aviation, who was also at the scene, said they were waiting for the AIB report.
Speaking to NAN, one of the divers, Fridsy Ukpon, who claimed to be a fisherman, said it took them about four hours to find the bodies.
Ukpon said they saw the helicopter crashed into the Lagoon while they were fishing in the area.
“We entered the water at 7 a.m. and recovered the bodies at about 10.30 a.m,’’ he said.
NAN reports that the corpses were taken out of Oworosoki Police Station at 11.45 a.m.
The Lagos State Police Command’s spokesperson, DSP Patricia Amadin, had confirmed that after the crash, six persons were rescued alive on Wednesday and four dead.
The police also confirmed that the ill-fated helicopter which plunged into the Lagos Lagoon at Oworonshoki, was carrying 12 passengers when the accident occurred at about 3.10 p.m.
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