But the families of the survivor passengers are not the ones that are thanking their stars. Also celebrating their close shave with death are more than 30 members of a church whose building the helicopter miraculously avoided crashing into. The Nation gathered that at about 3 pm when the crash occurred on Wednesday, no fewer than 30 worshippers were gathered inside the Celestial Church of Christ on Alonge Street, Oworoshonki in Kosofe Local Government Area, Lagos State for a prayer session.
Unknown to the worshippers, the helicopter which had 12 people, including the crew members, on board had only missed crashing into their church by a whisker. Their attention was drawn to a loud noise as the helicopter plunged into the lagoon behind their church, but they had no idea how lucky they had been until they came out to be told by eyewitnesses that the chopper’s pilot only miraculously avoided crashing into their church.
The Shepherd of the church, Superior Prophet Adegbenga Adeniyi, who was inside the mission house, a bungalow attached to the building, when the chopper crashed, said he was alerted by the noise from some people behind the church.
He said: “One of our sisters at the backyard was the one who shouted my name, saying that a helicopter had crashed into the water. I didn’t believe it at first because I thought it was impossible for that to happen. At first, I thought how could a helicopter fall into the lagoon?
“I have heard of plane crashes before, but I have not witnessed this kind of accident. After that, I heard that sand dredgers by the shore of the Lagoon had rescued two of the victims.
“The first two people brought out were still alive, but they also brought two dead bodies out of the Lagoon. It was after this that the Area Commander of the police and some others entered a white boat and went far into the lagoon.
“But you know that if the chopper (helicopter) had crashed into the church, I really don’t know what would have happened. As at that time, we had more than 30 worshippers inside the auditorium praying. We thank God that He spared all of us from any calamity.
“We also thank God that our building was saved. What we would have been saying today would have been a different story.
“I was inside when the thing happened. But the person at the back of the house knew what happened. Assuming the chopper crashed into the building, many things would have been destroyed.”
Another worshipper who witnessed the crash said she was at the back of the church building where the chopper was roving before it finally crashed into the lagoon. BEHIND every cloud, they say, there is a silver lining. The death of six passengers from the helicopter that crashed into the lagoon in Lagos on Wednesday no doubt threw the families of the deceased passengers into deep mourning. But the families of the six survivors of the crash must also have been gone into wild jubilation after learning of the survival of their loved ones. Talk about different strokes for different folks.
But the families of the survivor passengers are not the ones that are thanking their stars. Also celebrating their close shave with death are more than 30 members of a church whose building the helicopter miraculously avoided crashing into. The Nation gathered that at about 3 pm when the crash occurred on Wednesday, no fewer than 30 worshippers were gathered inside the Celestial Church of Christ on Alonge Street, Oworoshonki in Kosofe Local Government Area, Lagos State for a prayer session.
Unknown to the worshippers, the helicopter which had 12 people, including the crew members, on board had only missed crashing into their church by a whisker. Their attention was drawn to a loud noise as the helicopter plunged into the lagoon behind their church, but they had no idea how lucky they had been until they came out to be told by eyewitnesses that the chopper’s pilot only miraculously avoided crashing into their church.
The Shepherd of the church, Superior Prophet Adegbenga Adeniyi, who was inside the mission house, a bungalow attached to the building, when the chopper crashed, said he was alerted by the noise from some people behind the church.
He said: “One of our sisters at the backyard was the one who shouted my name, saying that a helicopter had crashed into the water. I didn’t believe it at first because I thought it was impossible for that to happen. At first, I thought how could a helicopter fall into the lagoon?
“I have heard of plane crashes before, but I have not witnessed this kind of accident. After that, I heard that sand dredgers by the shore of the Lagoon had rescued two of the victims.
“The first two people brought out were still alive, but they also brought two dead bodies out of the Lagoon. It was after this that the Area Commander of the police and some others entered a white boat and went far into the lagoon.
“But you know that if the chopper (helicopter) had crashed into the church, I really don’t know what would have happened. As at that time, we had more than 30 worshippers inside the auditorium praying. We thank God that He spared all of us from any calamity.
“We also thank God that our building was saved. What we would have been saying today would have been a different story.
“I was inside when the thing happened. But the person at the back of the house knew what happened. Assuming the chopper crashed into the building, many things would have been destroyed.”
Another worshipper who witnessed the crash said she was at the back of the church building where the chopper was roving before it finally crashed into the lagoon.
She said: “We sat behind the church playing when we heard a loud bang. We looked up and saw the chopper in smoke, and before we knew what was happening, we realised it was going to fall into the lagoon.
“We quickly ran to tell the Shepherd because we thought the chopper was going to crash into the building. But it went and crashed into the lagoon, with the tail first. It was followed by a loud noise.”
Another eyewitness, Alhaji Haruna Ishola, said he was outside his office located beside the lagoon when he saw the helicopter flying very low.
Ishola, who is the Chairman Tipper Garage Association, located near the crash site, told The Nation that he knew that the chopper was in trouble as it swayed wobbly before plunging into the lagoon. According to Ishola, the chopper narrowly missed crashing into the one-storey church building before it eventually crashed into the lagoon.
Ishola, who heaped praises on the pilot for what he termed his heroic deeds, said he was sure that the pilot struggled to steer the chopper away from the building in order to minimise the number of casualties.
He said: “I was there yesterday with my boys when it happened. We first saw it flying very low and I immediately knew that it was in trouble. I realised that it was going to crash into the two-storey building, but I think the pilot too realised it and tried to steer away into the lagoon.
“As the chopper was coming, it wanted to land on the building. The pilot, whether he is the one that used his sense or it was the hand of God at work, I cannot really tell. He tried to control the chopper. As it was coming, let’s say about two kilometres to this place, fortunately or unfortunately, it landed into the lagoon.
“But after it crashed, we took our local boat and the local dredgers around and dashed into the lagoon to rescue the victims. The reason why the response was early was because we had people, especially the dredgers, who quickly took their canoes and rushed to the scene.
“Immediately we got close to the crash site, we were able to rescue six people who were still alive, while four others were already dead. But the following day, Thursday, we recovered two other corpses. I believe they are the pilot and the co-pilot. All the people on board were male.”
One of the first set of volunteers to arrive at the scene was Mr. Ganiyu Adekoya, a driver with a dredging company working at the shore of the lagoon.
Adekoya, who said he was relaxing after a hard day’s job, said the local dredgers were the first set of people to rush to the scene.
Adekoya said: “We were about 15 who rushed into the Lagoon to rescue the victims when the crash happened. The first two people we rescued were still alive. One had a broken leg and the other person had a broken waist.
“We were asking them for their identity, but they said we should take them to the hospital first. All the victims are male; there was no woman among them.
“Those among us who could dive under water did and searched the area. But it was really tough because we had nothing to work with. It was a terrible experience for all of us. Imagine watching a helicopter crash into the water. It was like we were watching a movie. That experience will stay with me for long.”
Gabby, also a dredger, said he and his people did not think twice before jumping into the Lagoon in their rescue effort.
According to him, he and his colleagues were resting by the side of the Lagoon when they were attracted by a loud noise as the chopper crashed into the Lagoon.
He said: “You know, we were all playing and chatting when we saw the helicopter doing as if it was going to crash. As we were looking and asking what could be wrong with it, we suddenly realised that it was going to fall into the Lagoon.
“We did not think at all before jumping into our canoes and dashing to the scene. When we got there, we saw two people trying to swim, and we realised that they were still alive, so we rescued them. We also saw other people, but four were already dead and we brought their bodies to the shore.”
The rescue and search effort had been called off as at 12 noon on Thursday. According to the leader of the Accident and Investigation Bureau (AIB), Clem Onyeyiri, all the 12 people on board the chopper had been accounted for, with six rescued alive and six dead.
Onyeyiri told The Nation that his body had taken over the task of investigating what led to the crash.
He said: “You know that the rescue and search team has completed its task. It is now for us to get to the root of the cause of the crash. But we are waiting to get the body of the helicopter out of the water.”
As Onyeyiri and his team were waiting on their next line of action, our correspondents at the crash site overheard another team, headed by a foreigner, discussing the possibility of hiring local divers to help in the effort to salvage the fuselage from under the water.
At the time of filing this report, the six survivors, who were rushed to two hospitals in the area- Folabi Hospital, Oworonsoki and the General Hospital, Gbagada, had been relocated to other hospitals for better treatment.
A source at Folabi Hospital, who pleaded anonymity, said the survivors who were rushed to the hospital were given first aid and were later transferred to St Nicholas Hospital, after they specifically requested to be taken there.
“They were rushed here immediately after the crash. We attended to them and gave them first aid. One had a broken leg while the other had a waist problem. They were transferred from here at about midnight,” the hospital source said.
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