Following the fatal helicopter crash on August 6, 2025, that claimed the lives of five high-ranking government officials, including two ministers, and three crew members, serious questions are being asked about the speed of Ghana’s response.

According to the Ghana Armed Forces, the aircraft departed Accra at 9:12 a.m. en route to Obuasi for official government business. By commercial flight, the journey from Accra to Kumasi takes around 40 minutes.

With a military helicopter, arrival in Obuasi should have been within an hour.

Yet it was not until 1:43 p.m. (more than three hours after the estimated arrival time) that the Armed Forces issued a statement confirming radar contact had been lost. The statement further said "all efforts are being made to establish contact".

However, this does not necessarily mean that was when action was first taken.

The presidency announced the deaths at 2:20 p.m., about four hours after the helicopter should have landed.

An Armed Forces investigative team was not dispatched to the crash site until the following day, 24 hours after the incident.

The central question: Why the delay? And what exactly does Ghana’s search and rescue protocol require in such a situation?

Ghana’s Search & Rescue Protocol

Ghana’s search and rescue procedures for aircraft are governed by the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) as part of its obligations under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

While these rules are written primarily for civilian and commercial flights, they form the “mother protocol,” meaning the Armed Forces’ own procedures should be at least as strict, if not stricter.

The protocol is clear: a search must begin immediately if there is no contact with an aircraft within 30 minutes of its expected communication time, or if it fails to arrive within 30 minutes of its estimated landing time.

Whichever threshold comes first triggers the operation.

The search begins from the last known position of the aircraft and expands outward, with the radius even determined by the protocol. If conditions allow, another aircraft may be dispatched to assist in locating it.

At the same time, radio stations should be used to broadcast details of the missing aircraft to the public, along with a phone number for sightings if the search is not yielding results.

District assemblies in potential search areas must also be contacted to mobilize local resources in case the aircraft is found nearby.

Once the aircraft is located, and if it has crashed, the response is meant to be immediate and simultaneous.

District police are tasked with securing and cordoning off the site while controlling crowds. The Fire Service must be on hand to manage any fires or explosions.

The army is expected to provide vehicles, maps, tents for extended operations, and secure communications. Forestry Commission personnel assist with access in remote terrain.

Ambulances and medical teams should be deployed with the necessary equipment to treat survivors, and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) must move in with blankets, tents, food, and survival kits for both rescue teams and survivors.

All the teams are to be deployed simultaneously, not one after the other.

The intent of the protocol is simple: to ensure the crash site remains secured at all times while the search for survivors continues, until it is confirmed that everyone has been found or that further search efforts are unlikely to succeed.

On paper, this means the clock should have started ticking no later than 30 minutes after the helicopter missed its estimated arrival in Obuasi. Search and rescue assets should have been deployed at that point, not hours later, and certainly not the next day.

Sources indicate that the Armed Forces actually triggered the search and rescue operation about 30 minutes after the aircraft’s estimated arrival time.

The army reportedly reached the crash site around 2:00 p.m., dispatched a flight from the Northern base to Obuasi, and remained at the location until the following day.

However, the official investigation team only arrived the next day, by which time the site had already been contaminated. Locals had been at the crash scene for hours and took pieces of the debris away before the Armed Forces managed to take full control.

This is likely to make the investigation far more difficult.

JoyNews Research has not yet obtained the Armed Forces’ own search and rescue protocol, but under the GCAA’s framework, the delay raises questions about whether the established procedures were fully observed.