2026 Mount Ololokwe helicopter crash
Lady Lori Helicopters, operating for &Beyond Safaris Eurocopter EC130 B4 · Under investigation
From Loisaba Conservancy, Kenya to Ewaso Ng'iro, Kenya
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA26WA285
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · AAID official statement, 19 Aug 2026
- Event fatalities
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 7
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Eurocopter EC130 B4
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter EC130
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 5Y-GYM
- Onboard fatalities
- 7
- Route
- From Loisaba Conservancy, KenyaTo Ewaso Ng'iro, Kenya
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Unknown or undetermined
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 19 August 2026, a Eurocopter EC130 B4 helicopter crashed near Mount Ololokwe in Samburu County, central Kenya, killing all seven people on board, including Ecuador's intelligence chief Michele Sensi-Contugi, his wife Stephany Hollihan and a group of four other American citizens from South Florida. The helicopter, operated by Lady Lori Helicopters, was carrying passengers on a charter flight from Loisaba Conservancy toward the Ewaso Ng'iro area when it crashed at approximately 9:13 a.m. local time.
Among the South Florida victims were José Alberto Suárez, president and general manager of three Telemundo-owned television stations in Florida, Miami restaurateur Roger Edward Duarte, real estate executive Adam Hlavaty, and software executive Henry Parra. Five of the seven people killed were American citizens, including Hollihan.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the crash and announced that the Air Accident Investigation Department of Kenya's Ministry of Roads and Transport had begun an investigation. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. This was the second deadly helicopter crash of this scale in Kenya in 2026, with another fatal helicopter accident in Nandi County in February 2026 having killed six people, including MP Johana Ng'eno. The February crash had also involved a Eurocopter helicopter.
Flight and crash
The aircraft was a single-engine Eurocopter EC130 B4 operated by Nairobi-based Lady Lori Helicopters. It was carrying guests of luxury travel company &Beyond on a charter flight. They had been flying to the Ewaso Ng'iro river.
According to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), the flight was traveling from Loisaba Conservancy toward the Ewaso Nyiro area when it crashed at 9:13 a.m., local time. The aviation authority and operator described the itinerary of the tourists as taking a flight from Suyian Conservancy to Mount Ololokwe. The crash occurred in rugged terrain in the foothills of Mount Ololokwe, a prominent mountain and tourist destination in northern Kenya. The Kenya Red Cross reported that difficult terrain and a fire at the crash site hampered search and recovery efforts. Tropic Air Kenya dispatched two helicopters to assist the response.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the accident, and the Air Accident Investigation Department (AAID) of Kenya's Ministry of Roads and Transport opened an investigation. It was reported that aviation experts from the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) would work with the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to investigate the reasons for the crash. The AAID further reported that rugged terrain and the extensive post-impact fire complicated the recovery and preservation of evidence, therefore deciding that all recoverable wreckage would be transported to Nairobi for further examination.
France became involved due to being country where the helicopter was designed and manufactured. The United States became involved due to the five U.S. citizens killed in the crash. The BEA initially classified the occurrence as a collision with terrain during a commercial sightseeing flight followed by a post-impact fire.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2026 Mount Ololokwe helicopter crash” (revision 1373952490, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2026 Mount Ololokwe helicopter crash
- Revision
- 1373952490 · 2026-09-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q141131120
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA26WA285
- Event ID
- 20260819203622
- Case number
- GAA26WA285
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2026 Mount Ololokwe helicopter crash" (page 84023926, revision 1373952490); merged with NTSB case GAA26WA285 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Aircraft Accident Investigation Department (AAID), Ministry of Roads and Transport, Kenya official statement
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record GAA26WA285
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A helicopter company flying safari guests on a charter flight: on-demand helicopter charter. The article: "was carrying passengers on a charter flight from Loisaba Conservancy toward the Ewaso Ng'iro area"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Aircraft Accident Investigation Department (AAID), Ministry of Roads and Transport, Kenya official statement
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2026 Mount Ololokwe helicopter crash" and NTSB case GAA26WA285, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Checked against the Aircraft Accident Investigation Department (AAID), Ministry of Roads and Transport, Kenya official statement (2026-08-19) on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, fatalities, registration, operator, departure and damage. Shown unchanged where the report gives another value or wording: destination (shown Ewaso Ng'iro, Kenya; report Ololokwe). Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, flight number, aircraft type, type of operation and ground fatalities.