Nigeria’s first female combat pilot and one of the Nigerian Air Force most celebrated female fighter pilots, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile is dead.
According to Director of Public Relations and Information Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, Flying Officer Arotile died from head injuries sustained in a road traffic accident at NAF Base in Kaduna.
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.
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.
