On 3 June 2007 a Mil Mi-8 helicopter operated by Paramount Airlines crashed near

Lungi International Airport Freetown International Airport (officially), locally known as Lungi International Airport, is an international airport located in the coastal town of Lungi, Sierra Leone. It is the only international airport in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Ri ...

in Sierra Leone, killing approximately 20 to 22 peopl

Background

In 2007,

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, hovercraft, and sea ferry were the only practical ways to travel between the airport and the capital,

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

, which are separated by the

Sierra Leone River The Sierra Leone River is a river estuary on the Atlantic Ocean in Western Sierra Leone. It is formed by the Bankasoka River and Rokel River and is between 4 and 10 miles wide (6–16 km) and 25 miles (40 km) long. It holds the major port ...

as it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The passengers on board were

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

lese football fans who were returning from watching their national team play that of Sierra Leone, and the two pilots were of

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

origin. The passengers had chartered the aircraft specifically for the flight.Sierra Leone air crash kills 19
–

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

– Published 4 June. Retrieved 7 June 2007.

Crash and emergency response

According to an eyewitness, both pilots jumped out immediately prior to the crash.Crash in Sierra Leone kills at least 20
Macon.com. Published 3 June 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2007. Later reports stated that 22 were killed, and that the Russian copilot was the only survivor.
'' People's Daily''. 31 July 2007. The aircraft caught fire upon impact and was destroyed before firefighters were able to extinguish the flames. According to airport witnesses the firefighters did not attend the scene until 40 minutes after the crash. The firefighter who had the keys to the fire truck was not at his station in the airport at the time. Airport staff had to douse the flames with buckets of wate

Investigation

sent a six-person delegation to help investigate the crash, as most of the dead were Togolese football fans visiting for an African Cup of Nations qualifying match on Sunday. They included Togolese Minister of Sports

Richard Attipoe Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

. Sierra Leone's Minister of transport and communications Dr Prince Harding as well as the two top aviation officials in the country lost their jobs as a result of the crash and a commission of enquiry was set u

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paramount Airlines Helicopter Crash, 2007 Aviation accidents and incidents in Sierra Leone Aviation accidents and incidents in 2007 2007 in Sierra Leone 2007 in Togo Accidents and incidents involving the Mil Mi-8 June 2007 events in Africa