Unspecified number of Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers on Saturday survived a helicopter crash after the Force’s Mi-24 gunship crashed landed near Saaka Airfield in Fort Portal City, Kabarole District in western Uganda.
The helicopter crashed into a mud and wattle house at Saaka at 9:30am, just half a kilometer from the airfield, according to UPDF officials.
An eyewitness said three helicopters had just taken off from Saaka airfield but one of them crash-landed on one of the houses belonging to an elderly woman in the neighbourhood.
Other witnesses said two UPDF soldiers were seen disembarking from the helicopter.
UPDF soldiers have cordoned off the crash scene to restrain on-lookers and journalists from getting to it for security reasons, according to the UPDF Mountain division spokesperson, Maj Peter Mugisa.
He said both the occupants of the helicopter whose number he declined to divulge and the occupants of the house are safe.
“The UPDF technical team from Entebbe has reportedly been contacted to go and investigate the cause of the crash.
“At around 9:30am today, there was an incident involving our Mi-24 fighter helicopter that crash-landed at Saaka Airfield. It landed on a civilian’s house damaging the roof. Good enough the occupants of the house and the helicopter came out safely. Nobody was injured. The unfortunate part is that the helicopter and the house got some damages. Part of the banana plantation at the home was also destroyed,” Maj Mugisa said.
He said the UPDF constructions engineers were contacted to help repair the damaged house.
“Our other technical team has also been contacted to come and investigate the cause of the incident and also assess the extent of the other damages,” Maj Mugisa told this reporter on Saturday.
