Lieutenant General William Agyapong, Chief of Defense Staff, has described the situation that led to the use of cocoa sacks to transport the bodies of the eight personnel killed in the helicopter crash on August 6.
The intensity of the burns prevented the use of body bags, which were the proper equipment for such an exercise, according to Lieutenant General Agyapong, despite the fact that staff at the scene possessed them.
He emphasized that the rescue crew carried the victims’ corpses as best they could using the supplies at hand, including cocoa sacks. According to Lt. Gen. Agyapong, the crew used the “available and appropriate material” to move the bodies out of the dense forest because night was coming and the remains could not be left at the spot.
On Wednesday, August 13, 2025, the CDS clarified this during a visit from Ghana Journalists Association leaders.
”To sum up, we had to use the relevant and accessible materials that we had on hand to carry out the recovery work. We had several body bags at the site, but they couldn’t be used since the remains were so hot.
It was getting late, and it was in a dense forest. We knew what would have happened to the dead, but we might have left the remnants there till the next day. After evaluating the situation, the team chose to begin the descend to higher ground using whatever materials they could find”.
In order to make sure that all of the remains and airplane components are found, he added the rescue crew is now broadening their search.
“It was growing late.” The area had been fenced off, though I wouldn’t use that term because we weren’t even sure how widely the wreckage had spread. Because we don’t know exactly where all the remnants, shards, and portions of the airplane might be, the search is still being expanded by workers on the ground as I speak,” he continued.
”They met the medical team at the base of the hill, he added, and they dutifully placed our fallen warriors in the body bags they had, some of which had been sent by AngloGold Ashanti. We transported them in ambulances to Kumasi, where they were buried in coffins decorated with flags appropriate to their position as national heroes. We then relocated them to Accra, where you could observe the type of greeting that was planned for them”.
The Chief of Defence Staff acknowledged that because of the “hurried” way in which things happened, certain protocols might have been broken during the transfer of the remains.
“All of these things were completed in a hurry, let me say that. There may have been a few errors. When the plane took off in the morning, no one anticipated such a catastrophe. It’s probable that some actions that weren’t in line with our culture were taken from the crash to Accra,” he said.
Lieutenant General Agyapong insisted, however, that the personnel and rescue team made the most of the resources available to them.
“However, I have to admit that those who were on the ground evaluated the situation, and in retrospect, I believe they made the best use of the resources available to them,” he said.
