President John Dramani Mahama arrived in Akosombo on Thursday, April 30, 2026, aboard the newly acquired Ghana Air Force Airbus H175 helicopter, marking a major milestone in the country’s military aviation modernisation drive.

His visit formed part of an official assessment of a recent fire outbreak at the Akosombo Dam, an incident that caused more than 1,000 megawatts of power to go offline and disrupted supply on the national grid.

During the visit, he inspected ongoing restoration works and praised the Volta River Authority for their swift response in stabilising the situation, describing the fire outbreak at the Akosombo control room as an opportunity to modernise the facility.

The Ghana Air Force recently took delivery of the state-of-the-art aircraft from Airbus Helicopters in France, as part of a broader defence procurement programme approved by Parliament to strengthen the operational capacity of the Ghana Armed Forces.

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The helicopter was ferried from Marignane, France, and arrived in Accra on March 5, 2026, after completing all technical acceptance procedures with the manufacturer.

The delivery flight followed a carefully mapped route through Spain and North-West Africa before descending along the West African Atlantic coast into Ghana.

The H175 forms part of a wider acquisition package that includes one H160 and three H175 helicopters from Airbus Helicopters, as well as a Falcon 6X long-range aircraft from Dassault Aviation.

See the video below:



JKB/MA

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