Guinean Probe Team Arrives

General Kelefa Diallo and the other fallen military officials

Guinean authorities will today dispatch a team to Monrovia to join their Liberian counterparts in probing the cause of the February 11 plane crash in which 11 top officials of that neighboring country’s military were killed.

Disclosing this to reporters yesterday at the Ministry of Information, Transport Minister Eugene Lenn Nagbe said the Guinean delegation will be joining its Liberian counterpart to probe further into what must have caused the CASA 235, a Guinean registered military aircraft, to crash.

Once in the country, the Guineans, together with their Liberian colleagues, will be led by the head of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA), Richelieu Archie Williams, to the United States where the flight data recorder, the black box, will be opened and analyzed. This activity will begin next week, Minister Nagbe disclosed.

The LCAA boss is the newly appointed administrator-at-interim, tasked with the oversight responsibility of managing the affairs of the RIA; stepping into the shoes of dismissed RIA managing director Ellen A. Corkrum.

The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Transport, has already requested the American Government, through its National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), for technical assistance in this probe.

“The Americans responded positively and have seconded an expert to form a part of the investigation. The NTSB has also made available its facility in Washington D.C. for the decoding and the reading of the contents of the black box, which will be done next week,” he noted.

The Guinean Ambassador near Monrovia, Elhadji Abdoulaye Doré, on February 16, informed the Daily Observer that an official delegation of investigators WILL be dispatched to Liberia; however, their arrival would follow the conclusion of preliminary civil aviation authority investigation conducted by both countries.   Already, an unofficial team came and returned to Guinea after some cursory inspection of the crash-site. Their findings, as yet undisclosed, should not weigh heavily on the more serious probe still to be conducted.

Guinea’s army chief, Kelefa Diallo and 10 other senior military staff were killed on February 11 when their plane crashed in Charlesville, Margibi County. The delegation was on a security mission to Liberia. They were heading to Monrovia to participate in celebrations marking this year’s observance of Liberia’s Armed Forces Day.

Guinean President Alpha Conde posthumously promoted Diallo to the rank of Dignity of Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit of the Republic of Guinea. The ten other officers were named as Commanders of the National Order of Merit.

Expressing unbridled sorrow on her behalf and that of the Liberian people, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared Tuesday a national day of mourning that was observed as a national holiday across the Republic.

“All Liberians are saddened by this. We just stand by Guinea,” the President said in brief emotional remarks on February sixteen last month, at the Guinean Embassy on 24th Street, Sinkor.