Tragedy: UPDF helicopter crashes in kabarole leaving three dead

Three persons have been confirmed dead after a military helicopter crashed in Kabarole District. The helicopter crashed on Tuesday at 2:30 pm in Nyamisingiri village, Bwanika parish Kichwamba sub-county.

It was headed to DR Congo after taking off from Ssaka Airfield. According to eyewitnesses, before it crashed, the helicopter hit the roof of two houses before going down into flames.

Jack Magezi, the LCIII Chairperson of Kichwamba Sub County said that the helicopter crashed into the house of a resident only identified as Mukidi, killing him instantly.

Maj Naboth Mugisha, the Spokesperson of the UPDF Air Force said that the incident was purely an accident. He however declined to divulge information about the occupants of the helicopter.

Our reporter in Kabarole says that UPDF soldiers have cordoned off the scene of the crash to prevent on-lookers from getting to it.

UPDF crashes are on the rise. On July 29 2023, yet another UPDF Russian-made helicopter crashed while in operation in Moroto. Luckily there were no casualties according to the army. This crash was preceded by two recent Mi-17 and Mi-24 helicopter crashes within hours of each other, in western Uganda and eastern DRC.

In February 2022, two cadet trainees of the Uganda military were injured when a military helicopter they were traveling in crash-landed soon after take-off at the Entebbe International Airport, 40 km south of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The February accident occurred just after a week when another Ugandan military helicopter crashed in Somalia, injuring four soldiers on an African Union peacekeeping mission.

In January 2020, the military lost two soldiers in a Jet Ranger which crashed in the central district of Gomba.