Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile Was Mistakenly Hit By Ex-Classmate Car While Reversing
The Nigeria Air Force (NAF) has revealed that Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s First female combat helicopter pilot, was hit with a car driven by her ex-classmate while reversing to greet her.
Tolulope Arotile died at age 24 as a result of head injuries she sustained from the accident, which happened at the Nigerian Air Force base in Kaduna state.
The death of the Flying Officer was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday night by the Director of Public Relations and Information Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola.
Flying Officer Arotile was winged as the first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the Nigerian Air Force on 15 October 2019, after completing her flying training in South Africa. She holds a commercial pilot license and also underwent tactical flying training on the Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopter in Italy.
Incidentally, she introduced the newly acquired Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopter to the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, during the induction ceremony at Eagle Square in Abuja on 6 February 2020.
Flying Officer Arotile died on 14 July 2020 at the age of 24, when she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force Secondary School classmate while trying to greet her. Before her untimely death, Flying Officer Arotile made significant and outstanding contributions to the war against terrorism, armed banditry and other forms of criminality in the country, flying several combat missions” the statement partly reads.
