The Presidency has hinted at a request from foreign experts to help study and analyse the black box retrieved from the military helicopter crash as part of ongoing investigations to unravel the cause of the accident.
Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, confirmed this information to the public and said their expertise is relevant for transparent and accurate work to be done.
According to the Minister, the American experts would soon arrive in the country, having already received the government’s letter and responded.
“I can confirm to you that, on the instruction of His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, we have formally requested the Americans to come in and assist.
“We all know that they have considerable expertise when it comes to these matters. So, the indication we have received from the Americans is that they are very much willing to assist. The Americans have responded, and we are expecting the arrival of American experts soon to help us with the investigations,” Mr Ablakwa said.
The Minister also said the government had made contact with the Chinese manufacturers to also help with the process.
“I can confirm to you that the Chinese have already been contacted and the manufacturers are standing by. Indeed, the briefing we have received from the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is that there is a standing protocol where the black box must be, as it were, made available to the manufacturer, in this case, the manufacturers of the Z9 helicopter.
“So, they are standing by. But, in the President’s wisdom, he does not want anything to proceed without independent experts. I think that it is quite fair so that we will just avoid all doubts, so that people will not raise issues of probably conflict of interest, maybe people with some kind of special interest trying to cover up and all of that,” he stated.
The Minister said the President wanted utmost transparency and assured that Ghanaians would be kept informed at every stage of the investigation.
“At all steps of the way, when these experts arrive, when the investigations commence, when the investigations progress, when the investigations conclude, every stage of the way the Ghanaian people should know about what is happening,” he said.
“We are waiting for the experts before these investigations are done. That is why you probably have not been getting regular updates on the investigation, of course, taking into account national security considerations,” he said.
Mr Ablakwa said it was in the country’s interest to honour the crash victims “by making sure that even as they are no longer with us, these ideals which they have always represented, which they stand for, must continue to be espoused and actually advanced in a very concrete manner”.
