Expdonaloaded News; 4 killed as helicopter crashes into Lagos Lagoon

FOUR persons have been confirmed dead, while three others were hospitalized when a helicopter crashed in Lagos yesterday.Witnesses told Expdonaloaded blog that the chopper, belong­ing to Bristow Helicop­ters, came down around 3pm into the Lagoon in the Oworonsoki area.
Unconfirmed reports said the chopper was coming from Ikeja when it made a loud noise before nose-diving into the Oworonsoki end of the Lagoon.

The incident occurred behind the king’s palace in Oworonsoki. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told Expdonaloaded blog via SMS that, “Our men have already com­menced rescue operations and we would have an idea of what happened in the next one hour,”
NEMA spokesman, Ibrahim Farinloye, said: “NEMA didn’t receive dis­tress alert from the chopper on its mission control cen­tre, but only received dis­tress alert of a ship in Delta State.
“Four dead bodies were recovered so far and two injured persons have been taken to Afolabi Hospital in Oworonsoki while the third injured person was moved to the General Hospital.”
Meanwhile, the Nige­rian Civil Aviation Author­ity (NCAA) has confirmed that the crashed helicopter belonged to Bristow He­licopters with registration number 5N- BDG-760540.
The helicopter, accord­ing to NCAA, was en route one of the nation’s oil rigs before crashing in the Oworonsoki.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr Fan Ndubuoke, said the ill-fated helicopter was scheduled to arrive in Lagos at 3:35pm.
The chopper according, to Ndubuoke, had 12 pas­sengers on board.
Officials of the Acci­dent Investigation Bureau (AIB), NEMA and the Po­lice are at the scene provid­ing rescue operations.
Also, sources said the chopper was coming into Lagos with oil workers from Ondo Oil rigs af­ter two weeks on the field and returning to have two weeks rest.
Eyewitnesses said it hovered for some minutes around the Oworoshoki Police Station before it eventually plunged into the Lagoon.
Privately-owned Bris­tow Hekucioters, engages primarily in commercial charter flights for oil and gas firms.