Kampala — A woman
and her two children on Monday afternoon escaped death after a
helicopter flipped over their house in Biina, Butabika Parish in Nakawa
Division and blew off the rooftop.
Ms Nampijja, now homeless, is being housed by her neighbour.
Narrating her life
petrifying experience to this newspaper yesterday, Ms Nampijja said she
saw a chopper coming down at a lower altitude and descending towards her
house at around 2:30pm.
Upon sensing
danger, she dashed into the house to rescue her children who were asleep
but did not make it on time and out of shock, she got trapped in the
house with her two children.
"We had not yet
moved out when the helicopter blew off the roof. We cannot tell what had
happened to the chopper," Ms Nampijja said.
The iron sheets flew off in different directions although none of her children was hurt by the falling debris.
Thugs, however, took advantage of the misfortune to rip off her belongings.
"I locked the shuttered door with the padlock but in the morning I found when thieves had robbed us clean," Nampijja said.
The Inspector
General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, yesterday sent Mr Andrew Kaweesi,
the police spokesperson, to ascertain the magnitude of the damage caused
by their helicopter.
"I have come with
our officers from our engineering unit to examine what needs to be done
to repair this house. That is the message IGP [Kayihura] told me to come
and tell you. It was our helicopter and we cannot deny that," Mr
Kaweesi said.
Mr Edward Agaba, an
eye witness, suspects that the helicopter might have lost balance since
it allegedly rotated before it hit the house.
"It would rotate
and stop in the air for seconds. It started moving at a very low height
and we were all scared. We saw it moving as if it was going to
crash-land," Agaba said.
However, Mr Kaweesi dismissed claims that the chopper was in a bad mechanical condition.
He suspected it might have been a "flying miscalculation by the pilot".
Col Ham Kaija,
commandant Police Air wing and Capt Aziz Sentamu, who was flying the
chopper, attributed the crash to bad weather.
"I was flying at a
high loftiness but I realised there were clouds in this area that could
not allow me have a clear view. I was forced to move at a very low
elevation," Captain Sentamu said.
Col Kaija said
Biina is one of the holding power centres for aircrafts before they are
released to land. He added that planes are usually advised to move on
elevated ground whenever they are uncertain of the weather.
