Captain Kuti, first Nigerian pilot to fly Boeing 747 dies at 78

Adekunle Kuti, first Nigerian commercial pilot to fly Boeing 747 is dead.

He died after a brief illness on March 28, aged 78. His death was announced by his widow Dr. Adegoriola Eni-Iyi Kuti.

According to a statement by the family, Captain Kuti was until his death the President, Hak Air Limited, an affiliate of GMF, Asia and also Director, Ghana -UK Tours Limited, an airline operating Accra-London route.

He was a member of the London Chamber of Commerce.

Captain Harrison Kuti trained as a pilot and attended Acme School of Aeronautics, Texas, and Burnside-Ott Aviation School, Miami. His professional and occupational interest spanned aviation, dredging and marine engineering and shipping marine operations.

He joined the Nigerian Airways Corporation in 1964, where he worked for about 20 years before retiring in 1983 as a Senior Training Captain.

In 1984, he was appointed Managing Director, Zenen Verstoep Company, a dredging, civil and marine engineering company, where he led a team of experts to execute various government projects, including the dredging of Lekki axis.

Kuti “was a man of distinguished attainments in many fields, his meritorious distinction as a pioneering commercial pilot, the first to fly Boeing 747 to Nigeria is forever established in aviation records.