As Ghana mourns the eight lives lost in the recent helicopter crash in the Ashanti Region, former President John Agyekum Kufuor has shared a chilling
As Ghana mourns the eight lives lost in the recent helicopter crash in the Ashanti Region, former President John Agyekum Kufuor has shared a chilling account of a near-fatal aviation scare he experienced during his presidency in 2007.
Speaking in a televised interview on Angel TV on Thursday, August 7, 2025, the former president recalled what he described as a divine escape from a possible plane crash over the Sahara Desert while on an official trip between Tripoli, Libya, and Khartoum, Sudan.
His recollection comes in the wake of intense national grief following the August 6 helicopter tragedy that claimed the lives of senior government officials and military officers.
“I remember that sometime in 2007, had it not been for God’s intervention, I would have been involved in a plane crash over the Sahara Desert,” Kufuor said, with visible emotion.
According to John Agyekum Kufuor, the incident occurred shortly after departing from a diplomatic meeting with the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
He was traveling with an entourage of about 12 to 16 individuals when their aircraft mysteriously failed to ascend properly after takeoff.
“All of a sudden, the plane could not gain altitude. For nearly 30 minutes, it remained heavy, struggling in mid-air. When you looked out, all you saw was the endless desert below,” he recounted.
He described the harrowing silence from the cockpit crew during the ordeal, which only added to the passengers’ anxiety.
Flight attendants, visibly panicked, began shifting luggage and moving nervously along the aisle, creating a terrifying atmosphere inside the cabin.
“The pilot didn’t say anything to us. We were left in fear,” Kufuor said.
Eventually, the aircraft diverted its course towards the Mediterranean Sea and circled over the water, still unable to climb to a safe cruising altitude.
For close to an hour, the aircraft remained unstable until the pilot finally managed to turn back and land safely in Tripoli
“As we landed, we saw fire tenders and security vehicles rushing onto the tarmac. That was when the pilot revealed that the plane was unable to climb higher, and he had to abort the flight,” the former president revealed.
The entire delegation had to spend the night in Tripoli while arrangements were made for a replacement aircraft to resume their journey to Sudan.
The cause of the mid-air technical failure was never publicly disclosed.
Kufuor’s testimony is particularly poignant as the nation comes to terms with the tragic loss of Defence Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, Environment Minister Dr. Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, and six others in the August 6 military helicopter crash.
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