The August 6, 2025 Z-9 EH GHF 631 helicopter accident, which claimed eight lives, was attributable to unhealthy climate, the Investigative Committee has discovered.
Based on the Committee, the climate in southern Ghana on the morning of the accident was poor, delaying departure for about an hour. Situations in Accra had been misty, with visibility between 5–7 kilometres and really low clouds beginning at 700–1,100 ft above the bottom.
In Kumasi, the climate was even worse, with drizzle decreasing visibility to round 4 kilometres and heavy low clouds sitting simply 600–900 ft above the bottom.
“The investigations decided that the accident was attributable to the sudden lack of altitude and raise attributable to downdraft. This lack of altitude with out change in energy or pitch perspective is in line with downdraft related to altering environmental situations over excessive terrain,” mentioned Captain (Rtd) Paul Forjoe, a member of the Committee and Head of Investigations on the Plane Accident Investigations Bureau.
Capt. Forjoe made this identified on the Presidency in Accra yesterday when he took the media by means of the Committee’s report as offered to the President on Monday.
Eyewitness accounts in Brofoyedru and its environs, the neighborhood the place the helicopter crashed, indicated poor visibility attributable to fog and rain. Capt. Forjoe revealed that there was no climate data alongside the flight route obtainable to the pilot.
Nonetheless, he mentioned the Z-9 helicopter was in good situation and had acquired a 90-day service threshold extension with the producer’s approval, having reached its 10-year service threshold on Might 18, 2025.
“The plane on the day of the flight was declared serviceable and duly signed off by the Captain. The flight knowledge recorder stories point out that the helicopter was in good working situation,” he added.
Capt. Forjoe famous, nonetheless, that the plane lacked some avionics security enhancements, together with terrain consciousness and warning programs, superior navigation with terrain mapping, and an computerized flight management system.
“These security tools might have enhanced the situational consciousness of the crew,” he mentioned. “It might have prevented the accident as a result of it will have put the pilot in a greater situational consciousness mode and enabled them to take choices that might have probably prevented this. We have now due to this fact really useful strongly for plane with these further security enhancements to be acquired instantly.”
On the crew, the investigation discovered that the personnel manning the helicopter had the requisite educational {qualifications}, business expertise, and competence to fly the helicopter.
In its suggestions, the Committee underscored the necessity for the fleet of the Air Pressure to be expanded instantly. “Tomorrow shouldn’t be even quick sufficient. As quickly as we will afford, we should always do it,” Capt. Forjoe acknowledged.
It additionally known as for the modernisation of the Pressure by means of the acquisition of plane with fashionable navigation programs, funding in flight simulators for recurrent coaching, contracting licensed aviation climate suppliers, and buying floor help tools and flight knowledge displays.
The individuals who perished within the flight had been Dr Edward Omane Boamah, Dr Alhaji Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, Dr Samuel Sarpong, Mohammed Limuna Muniru, Samuel Aboagye, Peter Anala, Manin Twum-Ampadu, and Ernest Addo Mensah.
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