The first female combat helicopter pilot in Nigeria Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile is dead .
Her death was announced on Tuesday in a statement issued by Ibikunle Daramola the Spokesman to the Nigeria Air Force (NAF ) Ibikunle Daramola
announced her death in a statement late on Tuesday .
Daramola disclosed that Arotile died as a result of head injuries
sustained from a road traffic accident at NAF Base in Kaduna State ,
northern Nigeria .
Arotile, according to Daramola, died barely a year after she was
winged as a combat helicopter pilot in the Air Force following the
completion of her course in South Africa .
The NAF spokesman described Arotile ’s career as one of “ impactful
service ” who contributed “ significantly to the efforts to rid the
North Central States of armed bandits and other criminal elements
by flying several combat missions under Operation GAMA AIKI in
Minna, Niger State .
“ We pray that the Almighty God grant her soul eternal rest .”
Arotile hails from Iffe in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi
State .
She was commissioned into the NAF in September 2017 as a member
of Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64 and later became
first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the service in Nigeria .
Daramola extended the commiseration of Arotile’ s death from “ the
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar , on behalf officers,
airmen, airwomen and civilian staff of the NAF , commiserates with
the family of late Flying Officer Arotile over this irreparable loss.”
Nigeria’s First Female Combat Helicopter Pilot Dies In Auto Crash
