Detectives question club workers in helicopter accident probe

Kenya Navy and KWS divers search for the bodies of the victims of Saturday's helicopter crash in Lake Nakuru. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Detectives are tracing the last movements of five people who were killed in last Saturday's helicopter crash in Lake Nakuru.

The team of officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Police Crime Unit want to determine whether the pilot was under the influence alcohol or had been drugged before he embarked on the journey.

According to an investigator who spoke to The Standard on condition of anonymity, the team visited a club where the five were said to have been on Friday night.

The officers visited the club on Monday evening at 5pm and left at around 9pm after interrogating several people, including the workers.

The detectives later went to Jarika County Lodge, where the pilot, Mr Apollo Malowa, and three male counterparts had booked rooms to spend Friday night. The other crash victims are Anthony Kipyegon, Veronicah Muthoni, John Mapozi, and Sam Gitau.

"Investigations are going on to establish if the pilot took excessive alcohol or was drugged at the club," said the investigator.

The investigators are also searching the bags belonging to the victims.

"We have to get information on what might have triggered the accident," he said.

The helicopter (5Y-NMJ) crashed on Saturday morning at around 7.30am, a few minutes after taking off from Jarika County Lodge located at Freehold estate in Nakuru town.

Besides the police, the State Department of Transport through the Aircraft Accident Investigation Unit, continued with investigations into the cause of the crash yesterday.

The chief investigator of aircraft accidents, Martyn Lunani, said one of the bodies recovered on Monday evening was taken to a funeral home in Nairobi for toxicology investigations.

"I have advised pathologists to take the body to Nairobi for toxicology tests following reports that the (crash) victims may have been drunk," he said.

Mr Lunani said other investigations will include aircraft licensing, training of the pilot, and history of the aircraft company.

The technical officer said crucial information relating to the aircraft's take off and other technical aspects can only be known once the recorders fitted in the helicopter cockpit are retrieved and decoded.

Only a few parts of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved from the salty water lake.

"Recorders are waterproof and their content will help us piece together what transpired before and during the accident," Lunani said.

Two bodies were recovered from the lake on Monday.

Families, relatives, and friends of the victims whose bodies have not been recovered anxiously waited by the lake.

Tuesday's mission was temporarily halted by heavy rains.