NAIROBI (Halbeeg News)-Kenyan Deputy President, William Ruto’s pilot, Captain Mario Magonga, has died in a helicopter crash on Monday.
The police said Captain Magonga died with another four Americans he was flying after their chopper crashed at Lobolo in Central Island National Park on Sunday night.
Security teams have been dispatched to the scene to assist with recovery of the wreck and the bodies, the police added.
The cause of the incident is yet to be established.
Kitutu Chache South MP Richard Onyonka, a relative of the deceased, said the chopper Mr. Magonga was flying went off radar near Lake Turkana.
He said following a search and rescue mission, the wreckage of the aircraft and the pilot’s body were located on Monday at 2 am.
“He (Magonga) went off the radar, and they were unable to trace him until about 2 am when they found his wreckage. The only thing we know is he was the one flying the helicopter,” he told local television.
The Turkana crash comes barely three weeks after a light fixed-wing craft came down in a forest at Londiani in Kericho, county killing all five occupants on board.
The regularity of the air crashes has brought Kenya’s air safety record into question.
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