MONUMENTAL TRAGEDY AS RECORD BREAKING 1ST NIGERIAN FEMALE COMBAT HELICOPTER FIGHTER PILOT- TOLULOPE AROTILE DIES AT THE YOUNG AGE OF 23!

Late Flight Officer Tolulope Arotile

A monumental tragedy has occurred!

It's obviously one of the saddest & most painful news to relate to the world as just when she had just begun to make impact, just when her life's journey seem to have just begun is when "Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile", the first-ever female combat helicopter pilot in Nigeria, died. She was just the young age of 23 years at the time of her sad demise. So it's an unbearable occurrence to say the least.

The terribly sad thing is that Officer Arotile died as a result of head injuries she sustained from a road traffic accident at Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Base Kaduna and not even in combat!

Her painful passage came barely a year after she was winged (commissioned) as the [1st ever female combat helicopter pilot] in the Air Force following the completion of her course in South Africa.

Confirming the incidence, the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, said until her death, ‪Flying Officer Arotile, who was commissioned into the NAF in September 2017 as a member of Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64, was the first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the service.‬

He went on: “During her short but impactful stay in the service, late Arotile, who hails from Iffe in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, 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.

“The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, on behalf of officers, airmen, airwomen and civilian staff of the NAF, commiserates with the family of late "‪Flying Officer Arotile‬" over this irreparable loss.

We pray that the Almighty God grant her soul eternal rest.”