Festus Aboagye, a retired Colonel and security analyst, has said the pilot of the August 6 helicopter crash, Squadron Leader Anala, was a top-certified VIP Pilot.
According to Festus Aboagye, Squadron Leader Anala has 13 years of experience flying as a pilot.
Speaking on The Point of View on Channel One TV on August 13, Col Aboagye stated, “If we zero in on the Captain — Squadron Leader Anala, he’s got 13 years of experience flying as a pilot. Before he passed, he was the most senior, most competent helicopter pilot.
His grading was Category C certified for flying VIP flights, and he has been flying VIPs in helicopters. This is to disabuse the minds of Ghanaians that some people say, ‘oh, he was not competent,’” he said.
He added, “Last point is that he has been trained in Aircraft investigation at Cranfield University, UK. Since his training, whatever that year was, he has been going back to Cranfield. The white man, Oyibo, Muzungo has been inviting him every year to come and deliver aircraft investigation training. He was very competent”.
“Among the three crew, he has 13 years, the Flying Officer has 5 years, the Flight Sergeant, the Engineer has 14 years. Ghanaians must throw away that stuff that maybe they were not competent”, he further detailed the experience of the other crew members.
In addition, Festus Aboagye has said there is no evidence of a mid-air explosion in the fatal Helicopter crash that occurred on August 6 at Adansi Akrofoum in the Ashanti Region.
According to Festus Aboagye, if the Helicopter exploded mid-air, the tops of the trees would be burnt, which would be evidence.
Col. Aboagye added, “Let me try and clear some of these conspiracies, about somebody emphatically saying that the helicopter crashed mid-air.
“The first thing is that there’s no evidence. The evidence that I have, call it empirical or recorded, is BBC. When the BBC does a report, they have done a lot of fact-checking. So BBC is saying that the eyewitness told us ‘loud noise’, ‘a ‘bang’, suggesting that there was an impact, and then there was an explosion,” he stated.
He added, “Assuming that it exploded mid-air, we must see the tops of the trees burnt, which will be part of the evidence”.
However, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe Ghansah, the Deputy Majority Chief Whip, has alleged that available evidence implies the GAF Z-9 helicopter was blasted mid-air.
According to the deputy Majority Whip, the retrieval of the black box will let Ghanaians know what really caused the aircraft to blast before coming down.
Speaking on OKAY FM, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe Ghansah stated, “The aircraft exploded; it did not crash. Let me tell you something: with all the crashes that have happened in the past, we see that the aircraft lands at a specific location. You would usually find it at a given location where the victims can all be found”.
But in this instance, the parts of the helicopter were scattered, and the victims were found at separate locations. In an aircraft where one is in a seatbelt, how did the victims end up scattered? We are told some of them were found in a deep valley. So, the aircraft blasted before reaching the ground,” she added.
The Deputy Majority Whip added, “We thank God that the black box has been found. Whatever the details are, the government should make them available because we are all interested parties. We want to know what happened that caused the aircraft to blast before coming down”.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has urged the media to exercise restraint and accuracy in their commentary on the recent Air Force Z-9 helicopter crash in the Ashanti Region.
GAF is calling on media practitioners, commentators, bloggers, and content creators not to draw conclusions based on opinion, perceptions.
According to GAF, premature conclusions risk misleading the public, but also deepen the pain of the bereaved families.
Captain VA Arhin, Acting Director General of Public Relations, in a statement wrote, “For the sake of the bereaved families and loved ones, the Armed Forces urge media practitioners, panelists, social commentators, bloggers, and content creators to be circumspect in their reportage as a way of according respect to the memories of the fallen heroes and to mitigate the sorrows of the bereaved families”.
“At this point in time, any purported conclusions based on opinion, perceptions, and conjectures will be premature and misleading. The public is therefore advised to be wary of such reportage,” the statement emphasised.
The statement concluded, “May the souls of our patriots continue to rest in peace”.
Also, a state funeral will be held for Ghana’s eight fallen heroes tomorrow, Friday, August 15, 2025, at the Black Star Square in Accra.