Further details surrounding the death of Nigeria’s first female helicopter pilot, Tolulope Arotile, has been revealed.
According to the Nigeran Air Force (NAF), she died after a car driven by her former airforce secondary school mate hit her at the NAF base.
Reports have it that on sighting Arotile, the excited class mate’s car hit her while reversing to exchange pleasantries.
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 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.
Describing 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, Daramola said the combat pilot flew several combat missions under Operation Gama Aiki in Minna, Niger State.
Tolulope Arotile was commissioned into the NAF in September 2017 as a member of the Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64 and later became a first-ever female combat helicopter pilot in the service in Nigeria.
