An eyewitness from New Edubiase has offered a personal account suggesting that the Air Force helicopter crash near Sikaman in the Ashanti Region — which claimed the lives of Ghana’s Defense Minister, Dr. Omane Boamah, and three others — may have been caused by impact with the mountainous terrain rather than mechanical failure.
According to Sammy Appietu, the crash site lies within the Dampayaw Forest, a densely wooded and highly elevated area stretching from the Nkamprom (Bamboo) chop bar at Hwiremoase to the outskirts of Obuasi. The forest, he noted, is home to massive trees such as the Petersianthus macrocarpus (Esa) and Ceiba pentandra (Onyina), some reaching heights of up to 100 feet.
“This is not an ordinary bare forest like Achimota or Kakum. It’s a mountainous forest with gold and cocoa farming communities behind it,” Appietu said. “If you misjudge the terrain here, it’s easy to hit a tree.”
He recalled seeing the helicopter pass over New Edubiase at an unusually low altitude amid cloudy, rainy weather. Residents of Sikaman also reported that the aircraft was flying low in its final moments.
Appietu drew parallels to a previous blue-and-white aircraft that reportedly made an emergency landing in Ajumako due to bad weather while en route to Obuasi to collect gold from the AngloGold Ashanti mines.
“The flight’s low altitude, bad weather, and the terrain make me believe it hit something rather than suffered mechanical failure,” he said.
Military officials have confirmed the recovery of the helicopter’s black box, which will be key to determining the exact cause of the crash.
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