Bell 427 crash near Jos, Plateau, Nigeria

The helicopter had been refuelled at Jos from a police bowser that had arrived from Abuja the previous day and had flown a patrol over the city before landing at the prisons service football field. At about 11:50 it lifted with four on board, including the deputy inspector general of police for operations. Five minutes later the tower was told it had come down near Kabong, on the edge of the Jos metropolis, and that all four on board had been killed. The Bureau could not conclusively determine the cause and classified the accident as controlled flight in to terrain, but recorded a series of non-compliances: the pilot's medical and simulator recurrency had both expired, the co-pilot was not type rated on the Bell 427, and the engineer who released the helicopter had neither type training nor a type rating on it. Three safety recommendations were raised, on police funding, regulatory compliance and fuel quality. Note that the aggregator entry for this accident lists seven occupants, seven on-board fatalities and five others, which contradicts the official narrative of four on board; the figures here follow the report.