The Nigeria Air Management Agency had enlisted neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea in the search for the missing crashed helicopter and four other passengers.

The helicopter, operated by East Winds Aviation, was transporting contract staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to the FPSO?NUIMS ANTAN facility when it tragically crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

As of the time of the crash on Thursday, eight persons were onboard but three lifeless bodies were retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean where the chopper ditched. Two others were later recovered on Friday, putting the number of recovered bodies at five.

Search operations have continued, but efforts to get either the aircraft or other victims from the ocean have not been fruitful.

The military, National Emergency Management Agency and emergency locators jointly started the search operations for the passengers of the helicopter immediately after the unfortunate incident occurred.

The aircraft was conveying workers of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, confirmed the unfortunate incident to our correspondent through a statement signed by the Head of Press and Public Relations of the ministry, Odutayo Oluseyi.

Meanwhile, a reliable source, who has been in practice for over 10 years, hinted to the Saturday PUNCH that as of 9pm on Thursday, stakeholders were already planning on how to break the unfortunate news to the families of the deceased persons.

When contacted for an update on the matter, the Managing Director of NAMA, Umar Farouq, told Saturday PUNCH that efforts were being made to find both the missing helicopter and passengers.

?Through concerted efforts, we are on top of the matter, with other agencies the search operation is on and Insha Allah we shall be successful,? he stated.

When asked if the agency had sought the help of neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, the NAMA boss responded in the affirmative, saying all the Flight Information Regions have been called upon for help.

In aviation, a flight information region is a specified region of airspace in which a flight information service and an alerting service are provided. FIRs are the largest regular division of airspace in use in the world as of now, and have existed at least since 1947.

Farouq added: ?Yes, in situations like this we collaborate with all adjacent FIRs for assistance. It is our responsibility to reach out to all Search and rescue stakeholders, which we have done in this regard. Cameroon, Equatorial-guinea among others are stakeholders in this regard and we have contacted them all.?

In a post on his X account, Keyamo noted that the remaining passengers had yet to be found.

?This is just to update the public that the divers deployed to the scene of the helicopter crash yesterday at the Atlantic Ocean, near Bonny-Finima, off the coast of Calabar, during a routine flight are still at work to find the remaining bodies and the wreckage.

?The ministry will be making a more comprehensive Press Statement as soon as we achieve some breakthrough,? he stated.(Extracted from a Saturday PUNCH report)

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