All Ugandan chopper crash bodies recovered back

posted on Fri, 17 Aug at 15:06

Rescue teams Thursday recovered the last four missing bodies of Uganda People Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers inside the burn-out wreckage of one of the three military helicopters which crashed on Mount Kenya.


The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) said the bodies were later flown to Nairobi by the Kenya Air Force, marking the end of the three-day search and rescue mission.

This brings the number of dead to seven.

KDF, together with volunteers from Kenya Wildlife Service, and the Forestry Service, had camped on the mountain for three days searching for the missing soldiers.

Meanwhile, the survivors from the ill-fated helicopters returned home yesterday evening, sources said.

Uganda Air Force publicist Lt Moses Omayo told Africa Review last night that the African Union mission in Somalia organised their return flight to Uganda from Kenya.

They arrived at 4:10pm and were received by the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Aronda Nyakayirima and other Air Force staff.

“The plane has landed safely and all the survivors have returned home in fairly proper condition,” military sources at Entebbe Airbase, who asked not to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the press, said yesterday.

A media invitation signed off by a Lt David Kamya in the early afternoon had invited journalists to be at the airbase by 9.30 am today to “to receive our comrades who survived helicopter accident.”
The State minister for Defence, Gen Jeje Odongo, and the survivors are expected to address a press conference today morning at the airbase.

Source: Radio XYZ Online | Ghana.