The truth is starting to come out on the mysterious demise of late Internal Security Mminister Prof George Saitoti, his deputy Orwa Ojode and four others, after details emerged that an unknown man who claimed to be a Eurocopter engineer worked on the helicopter two days before the fatal plane crash on June 10.
Police airwing chief engineer and deputy commandant Johnson Gatathu on Tuesday told the commission investigating the crash that he did not know much about the man named Aristide.
Gitathu told the commission chaired by Justice Kaplan Rawal, that Aristide was invited to work on the engine by another unknown engineer.
According to Gatathu, a message displayed after the June 8 repairs showed Engine Data Record (EDR) failure. He said they contacted a Eurocopter engineer who contacted his principals in South Africa.
In his testimony to the commission, Gatathu said the South African engineers had replied indicating that the EDR failure was not a safety problem and that they can continue flying the aircraft for another 200 hours.
He said engineer Aristide called another engineer from a neighbouring hangar to help him fix the technical problem.
The chopper was released after the June 8 repairs and was flown to Voi by Captain Nancy Gituanja to rescue another police chopper.
The ill-fated chopper crashed two days later, killing Saitoti, Ojode, and four others.
The probe still continues…….
