Policy analyst Bright Simons has cautioned against knee-jerk calls for Ghana to procure a new fleet of military aircraft for the Ghana Air Force in the wake of last week’s tragic helicopter crash that killed eight high-profile public officers.
This caution from the Vice President of IMANI Africa is in response to demands from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) calling for the immediate purchase of new helicopters.
But Simons is dismissing the calls, arguing that the Harbin Z-9EH aircraft involved in the accident was already relatively new by global military standards, having been bought in 2015 from China’s CATIC to protect Ghana’s offshore oil fields.
In a detailed analysis of the incident that tackles the calls for a new fleet cited by The High Street Journal, Bright Simons indicated there is little to no justification for the TUC demands.
The demands are even more bizarre considering that there is no comprehensive report on the cause of the crash, and hence, many of the calls are from unverified conspiracy theories.
“This has however, not stopped a raft of conspiracy theories and emotive policy proposals. The Trade Unions Congress (TUC), for instance, is demanding that Ghana buy a new fleet of aircraft for the military. Immediately,” he indicated.
He continued, “It is not clear if the TUC is aware that the Harbin Z-9EH that crashed is one of four very new helicopters purchased in 2015 from China’s CATIC for protecting Ghana’s oil fields.”
“Yes, 10 years is very young for military aircraft. The average age of aircraft in the US military, the world’s richest, is over 28 years. It is 18 years for black hawks, the most widely deployed helicopters in the US fleet,” he insisted.
According to Simons, the cause of the crash remains unknown, and no conclusions can be drawn until the official investigation is completed. He emphasised that critical details, such as why radar contact was lost moments after take-off, must be clarified.
While flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered, he warned that this does not guarantee all information will be intact, citing a 2014 Takoradi crash where the black box contained only unrelated old data.
Simons believes that without strong evidence of systemic flaws linked to aircraft age, spending millions on new helicopters would be unjustified. Instead, he called for a holistic plan to address maintenance, operations, and safety oversight within the Ghana Armed Forces.
“What I know for sure is that this specific tragedy, heartbreaking as it is and all, is not a basis for anyone to start pushing for the procurement of new military aircraft because age was definitely not the determinative factor here,” he concluded.
