Ghana's Citi Newsroom posted on 11 August 2025 an article titled "Troubled Skies: Spotlight on China's Z-9 Helicopter after Ghana's Tragedy" by Kobina Welsing.
A crash of a Ghana Air Force Z-9 helicopter manufactured by China's Harbin Aircraft Industry Group resulted in the death of 8 persons, including two government ministers. A series of other incidents in Africa involving the Z-9 is raising questions about its performance.
Pulselive.co.ke posted on 30 October 2024 an article titled "KDF Boosts Aviation Capabilities with Deadly Z-9 Helicopters" by Denis Mwangi.
The Kenya Army Corps of Aviation commissioned on 29 October refurbished Harbin Z-9 helicopters provided by the China Aviation Technology Import and Export Corporation. The report did not cite the number of helicopters that were commissioned.
Kenya's the Nation published on 3 July 2020 an article titled "Queries Raised over Military Choppers that Have Yet to Fly."
The article indicated that Kenya received 8 Chinese Z-9 helicopters in January 2020 that had not been airborne as of July 2020. There was no explanation why they remained on the ground without flying.
Comment: It is not clear if the undetermined number of recently commissioned, refurbished Z-9s are the same ones as the 8 delivered in January 2020,
Thedefensepost.com posted on 16 July 2024 an article titled "Kenya Receives Military Helicopters from US" by Joe Saballa.
Coincidentally, the United States delivered the first two of eight UH-1 Huey military helicopters in July 2024 to the Kenya Defence Forces. They were promised during the state visit to Washington by President William Ruto.
