I Swore Never To Hire The Chopper Again, Author Recalls Harrowing Experience in Helicopter That Killed MP Ng’eno Alleges Poor Maintenance By Owners

NAIROBI, March 3, 2026

A prominent Kenyan author and philanthropist has come forward with a chilling account of near-death experiences aboard the very helicopter that crashed on Saturday, February 28, killing Emurua Dikirr Member of Parliament Johana Ng’eno and five other occupants in what is rapidly emerging as one of the country’s most disturbing aviation disasters in recent years.

Osborn Yogo George, posting from what appeared to be a state of raw grief and barely concealed fury on Facebook, declared that he had personally hired the ill-fated aircraft on multiple occasions, survived harrowing mechanical failures and terrifying weather encounters aboard it, and had long since vowed never to set foot in it again.

His account, going viral across Kenyan social media platforms on Monday, has added explosive fuel to an already incendiary public debate about helicopter safety standards, aircraft maintenance, and the reckless disregard for human life that critics say pervades Kenya’s private aviation sector.

The aircraft that went down in Chepkiep Village, Mosop Sub-County, Nandi County that Saturday evening has since been identified as registration 5Y-DSB, a helicopter owned by Corporate Helicopters Kenya Limited, a company associated with Royal Media Group proprietor S.K. Macharia.

The body of Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng’eno is loaded onto a plane at Eldoret International Airport in Uasin Gishu County, and taken to Nairobi on March 01, 2026, after the legislator and five other people died in a chopper crash at Chepkiep Village in Mosop Sub-County of Nandi County on Saturday. Four bodies were also flown to Nairobi while that of the pilot was taken to western region.

Aviation insiders who spoke to Kenya Insights describe the machine as one of the most capable and versatile choppers operating in Kenyan airspace, a reputation that may itself have contributed to the catastrophic sequence of events that ended six lives.

‘THIS THING OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN OFF THE AIR’

In his Facebook account, George recalled that his first encounter with 5Y-DSB took him from Nairobi to Kisumu as its sole passenger, landing inside the Molasses plant compound. His boss arrived in Kisumu separately on a commercial flight.

The following day, the helicopter was supposed to ferry them across three counties, with their first meeting scheduled in Bomet for a physical audit of the FLLoCA programmes.

What happened next would have been the stuff of dark comedy were the consequences not so deadly serious.

The aircraft refused to start. After what George described as a struggle, it lifted slightly off the ground before sinking back down. The pilot attempted a second lift. It failed.

A third attempt was made. It failed again. Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, MP Walter Owino and George were forced to disembark and wait for two hours while a replacement helicopter was dispatched from Nairobi.

But the ordeal was far from over. On a subsequent journey from Migori to Kisumu, following a meeting with the President, 5Y-DSB carried George, Owino and the CS into conditions that the author says still visits him in his nightmares.

Approaching Kisumu from the Nyakach side of the lake, a violent storm overwhelmed the aircraft. The helicopter was pushed deep over Lake Victoria as heavy rain and wind conspired to drag it further from safety.

“We prayed. I wish I could narrate what the experience was on that day,” George wrote, words that convey a terror too vast to fully articulate. The aircraft eventually landed in Kisumu. Nobody on board spoke until they had reached the hotel. George swore that day, he wrote, that he would never again board that helicopter. “This thing ought to have been off the air,” he declared upon learning of Saturday’s fatal crash.

A PILOT TOO CAPABLE FOR HIS OWN GOOD

In conversations with Kenya Insights, one aviation source who spoke on condition of anonymity offered a perspective that reframes the tragedy in deeply uncomfortable terms. 5Y-DSB’s formidable reputation as a high-performance, versatile aircraft may have been one of the invisible killers on that Saturday afternoon in Nandi County.

“That helicopter is one of the most capable we have in Kenya. Its capabilities may have given the pilot false confidence,” the source said. “With such heavy rain, poor visibility, and night falling, if it had been just another helicopter, I am sure the pilot would not have tried to navigate in those conditions. The machine’s performance history may have pushed him to attempt what should never have been attempted.”

The source was careful to separate the aircraft’s capabilities from the question of pilot judgment. “I still think the pilot was reckless. The conditions were far too dangerous to fly in. Full stop.”

SIX MINUTES FROM NAIROBI, MONTHS FROM RETIREMENT

The pilot at the controls was Captain George Were, a retired military officer who had dedicated his professional life to the skies.

His family, who received his remains at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Sunday, told reporters that he was due to retire in September upon attaining 65 years, bringing the curtain down on a long and celebrated career.

His cousin Hesbond Omondi told reporters that Were had joined the military in 1983, accumulated over 4,000 flying hours, and flew as a fighter pilot before transitioning to civilian aviation.

His brother Dr Francis Were, visibly shattered at the airport, said the tragedy was without precedent in a long career. “When this happened, it was something we least expected because in his career as a pilot, he had never been involved in an air accident,” Dr Were said. “This is the first one and the last and the most devastating.” Were leaves behind a widow and two children, both in college.

PUSHED OFF THE GROUND, PUSHED INTO THE STORM

The picture being assembled by investigators paints a portrait of a disaster that was not the product of a single catastrophic error but of a cascading series of pressures that ultimately overwhelmed both man and machine. Flight records show the helicopter had already endured a punishing schedule by the time it began its fatal final leg.

5Y-DSB departed Wilson Airport at 11:04am, picked up MP Ng’eno in Emurua Dikirr at 11:55am, and then made landings in Mararianta, Endebess, Eldoret Airstrip, and Tabolwa throughout the afternoon, with some stops lasting only minutes. Radar data shows the aircraft departing Tabolwa at approximately 4:25pm. One minute later, radar contact was lost over Nandi County. The crash occurred shortly afterward.

Engineer Kipchirchir Mosonik, a close friend of the late MP who had himself ridden the helicopter earlier that day, told Tuko in an emotional Facebook video that he had noticed the pilot appearing to be in a hurry by the time the aircraft departed Endebess. “All I remember was that the captain was in a hurry. I think he wanted to go back to Nairobi,” Mosonik said. He said he chose to travel by road back to Eldoret and had just arrived in Kitale when news of the crash reached him.

Witnesses on the ground in Mosop reported that the helicopter had made an emergency landing in the area due to heavy mist and intermittent rain. The pilot stepped out briefly to assess conditions and interacted with curious villagers.

Eyewitnesses told reporters that passengers appeared eager to continue the journey despite the enveloping fog. The helicopter lifted off a short while later. Barely two kilometres away, according to eyewitness David Chepkwony Maiyo, it began moving in circles while airborne before plunging into the forest and erupting in flames. Another witness, Mary Chepkiech, said the resulting inferno was too massive for locals to fight.

All six occupants, including MP Ng’eno, pilot Were, Kenya Forest Service ranger Amos Kipngetich Rotich, photographer Nick Kosgei, teacher Robert Kipkoech Keter, and Narok County protocol officer Wycliffe Kiprotich Rono, were pronounced dead at the scene.

BLACK BOXES RECOVERED, AIRCRAFT PARTS HEADED OVERSEAS

A scene where a chopper crashed at Chepkiep Village in Mosop Sub-County of Nandi County on February 28, 2026, where six occupants died on the spot.

Even as public fury mounts over the circumstances of the crash, forensic investigators have been methodically picking through the charred wreckage of 5Y-DSB in search of the technical truth.

Officers from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Department arrived at the Chepkiep site and conducted a careful examination of the debris, retrieving a haul of flight components that experts say could unlock the mystery of what happened in those final, fatal seconds.

Among the items recovered were the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Flight Data Recorder, the two instruments universally referred to as the black boxes of any aircraft. Investigators also retrieved the Vehicle and Engine Multi-Function Display, the Digital Engine Control Unit, and the GPS system. Together, this suite of instruments is capable of painting a near-complete technical picture of the helicopter’s final minutes.

The Cockpit Voice Recorder stores all conversations between the pilot and crew, radio communications, and background ambient sounds within the cockpit, potentially capturing any warnings, alarms or exchanges between Were and his passengers in the moments before impact.

The Flight Data Recorder, for its part, captures hard technical parameters including speed, altitude, and aircraft movement, data that will allow investigators to reconstruct the helicopter’s precise flightpath and behaviour as it entered the mist over Mosop.

The engine control and display systems are equally critical, as they can reveal whether any mechanical faults manifested before the crash, or whether the aircraft was performing within normal parameters right up to the moment it struck the trees.

Acting AAID Director Fredrick Kabunge confirmed that the recovered components will be sent abroad for further testing and data extraction, a step that underscores the limitations of Kenya’s own forensic aviation infrastructure.

Kabunge added that experts will also carry out metallurgical analysis on structural components of the wreckage, probing for evidence of metal fatigue, structural weakness, or pre-existing engine failure that might have contributed to the disaster. Authorities further plan to share technical details with the aircraft manufacturer as part of the investigation, in accordance with international aviation protocols.

INVESTIGATORS CLOSE IN

Nandi County Police Commander Samuel Mukuusi confirmed that the crash site has been secured throughout the forensic process.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Transport CS Davis Chirchir have both indicated that international investigators aligned with the International Civil Aviation Organisation will independently review the accident, with a preliminary report expected within 30 days.

Meanwhile, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has sensationally claimed that the late MP had been under state surveillance, alleging that his own room had been bugged by undercover NIS agents to record a private conversation between himself and Ng’eno.

The claim, reported by the Nation, has deepened suspicions among some quarters in the Rift Valley that the crash warrants scrutiny beyond the narrow prism of aviation safety.

Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo has cautioned against speculation, noting that while adverse weather appears to be a major contributing factor, investigators understand that weather alone rarely tells the full story of aviation disasters. For those who knew the helicopter, and survived it, such caution rings somewhat hollow.

For Osborn Yogo George, the grief is personal and the outrage barely contained. “Seeing that it went down yesterday, killing people, among whom was an MP, hurts me,” he wrote. “This thing ought to have been off the air.”

The question now is whether Kenya’s aviation regulators had the information to reach the same conclusion long before Saturday’s inferno in the hills of Nandi County.