Crash pilot sends SoS from forest

By Cyrus Ombati

A pilot of one of the three missing Ugandan military choppers has sent a message from Mt Kenya Forest seeking for help.
Kenya Defence Forces said the pilot told them the troops on the ground and in the ill-fated chopper needed urgent help.

Scanty details on the state of the pilot was availed to the media as miliatry officials confimed the pilot was alive with ground and air troops rescue mission trying to reach to evacuate him.

The area is feared to be cold with rugged terrain and difficult to access because of the dense forest cover.

Kenyan military and police acknowledged bad weather was hampering efforts to rescue the soldiers on board the MI24 chopper.

Two of the missing Ugandan attack helicopters which went off the radar on Sunday as they flew to Somalia to shore up the final attack on the Port city of Kismayu. They were sighted after crash but rescue efforts have been dumpened by foggy weather.

Kenya's Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe earlier said in a brief statement: "one has been sighted on Mt Kenya and another in Meru side of the mountain." We are still trying to find out finer details of the crash and the search and rescue missions are on-going"

"One of the choppers landed in a military base in Garissa, North Eastern Kenya," military spokesman Bogita Ongeri confirmed to The Standard digital.

" It is a matter that involves a neighbouring country. We have scanty information but the choopers were headed to to the African Union mission in Somalia. We will inform the public accordingly once details become clearer," Ongeri said.

According to the DOD, the three helicopters are in the forest. Two military choppers that left for the area on Monday morning could not access the site of the crash because of the poor visibility.

“The area is misty and the experts cannot access it easily. We have to wait for long for the weather to improve but there are other ground troops who are trying to reach there,” said the official in regards to the rescue operation.

There were no details on the pilots of the other two choppers. DOD was also silent on the number of troops who were on board the choppers.

The search for the three MI-24 Russian made aircraft, which disappeared was concentrated near Mt Kenya while a fourth one landed in Garissa, initial reports inidicated.

Earlier, Kenya Defence Forces officials confirmed the incident but referred journalists to the police saying the incident was a homeland matter.

“It's true an incident happened on the choppers but talk to the police or Ugandans themselves. The matter is more of a homeland,” said a senior military officer who asked not to be named.

Kiraithe asked for more time to get detailed information on the incidents before making a full statement on the circumstances.

It is not yet clear on what happened to the helicopters. The choppers were apparently headed for Baidoa in Somalia.

The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) said a team of helicopters had left a base in the Ugandan city of Entebbe but that only one had landed in the Kenyan town of Wajir, where they were scheduled to refuel before flying on to Somalia.

UPDF did not say how many helicopters were missing or how many people were on board.

"The search is going on, we don't know what exactly happened but we are investigating it and we will let you know when I get adequate information," UPDF spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Reuters.

This comes at a time when the long-planned assault on Somalia’s southern port town of Kismayu by the Kenya Defence Forces and their Amisom allies is probably only days away in what will be a decisive week for Somalia.

The African Union force, which also includes Kenyan and Burundian troops, is planning an onslaught on Somalia's second biggest city Kismayu, which is a hub for the Islamist militants, before August 20.