Seven people climb into a helicopter in one of the most remote corners of Kenya, and none of them come back. Five are Americans. One runs Spanish-language TV stations for NBCUniversal. Another is the director of Ecuador’s national intelligence service. And the official story is they were all just on safari.
Maybe they were. Rich people do go on safari. But you’ll forgive me if I don’t swallow the whole thing without chewing first.
The crash happened at 9:13 a.m. Wednesday near Mount Ololokwe in Samburu County, a rugged stretch of northern Kenya where the cell service dies and the nearest paved road is a memory. The helicopter was a Eurocopter EC130 B4, registered 5Y-GYM, operated by a company called Lady Lori Helicopters. It was carrying six passengers and a pilot from the Suyian Conservancy, a 44,000-acre private wildlife refuge, to Mount Ololokwe. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority says an investigation is underway. Lady Lori says the cause “has not yet been determined.” Of course it hasn’t. It never is, not quickly, not when the right people are on board.
Here is who we know was on that aircraft. José Alberto Suárez, 55, president and general manager of Telemundo stations in Orlando, Tampa, and Fort Myers. Twenty years at NBCUniversal. His death was confirmed in a memo from NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde, who called him “a deeply respected leader and beloved friend.” Roger Duarte, a Miami food entrepreneur who founded George Stone Crab and made Forbes 30 Under 30 back in 2016. Rep. Carlos Giménez offered condolences to his family.
Then there’s Michele Sensi-Contugi, director-general of Ecuador’s Strategic Intelligence Center. A close associate of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa. A spook, by any plain reading. He was on the helicopter with his wife, Stephany Hollihan, a U.S. and Ecuadorian citizen, who also died. They leave behind two children. Ecuador’s presidency posted the news on X with the usual sorrowful language.
Jorjum (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia CommonsSo you have a media executive, an intelligence chief, a food entrepreneur, and their wives, all in the same aircraft over the same patch of Kenyan wilderness. The travel company behind the trip was &Beyond, a high-end safari outfit. The State Department confirmed the five American deaths and said the U.S. Embassy is “providing consular assistance,” which is diplomat-speak for “we’re on it, stop asking.”
Now ask yourself a simple question. If five ordinary Americans died in a helicopter crash anywhere, would the State Department have a statement out the same day? Would the embassy be “in contact with local authorities”? Would the story be bouncing across every major outlet within hours? Five Americans die in plenty of places and you never hear a syllable. But when one of them runs TV stations for a billion-dollar media conglomerate and another runs intelligence for a foreign government, the machinery moves fast.
CTV News noted something worth holding onto: helicopter crashes have been happening “with increasing regularity” in Kenya. In February, a legislator was among six people killed in a crash in western Kenya. So this is not a one-off. It is a pattern. And nobody in authority seems particularly interested in explaining why helicopters keep falling out of the sky over there, or who keeps booking the flights.
I’m not telling you this crash was anything other than an accident. I’m telling you the passenger list is odd, the location is convenient for people who don’t want witnesses, and the official response has the familiar shape of a story being managed before it’s investigated. You can believe whatever the authorities hand you. I’ll keep my questions.