Airforce Jet Crash Kills 7 in Kaduna ……El-Rufai mourns victims, as COAS setup investigative panel
Airforce Jet Crash Kills 7 in Kaduna
……El-Rufai mourns victims, as COAS setup investigative panel
By Alex Uangbaoje
An Abuja bound Nigerian Air Force Flight identified as Dornier 228 in the early hours of Saturday crashed into the officers quartersof the old site of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna.
The aircraft had taken off at about 6:45am from the Kaduna Military Airfield base
Seven persons on board the jet, including four crew members and three passengers died instantly.
The Nigerian Air Force authority has confirmed the incident saying, “A Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Dornier-228 aircraft, with call sign NAF030, has crashed into a house at Ribadu Cantonment, Kaduna.
A statement by the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Dele Alonge read that, “Though no casualty was recorded on ground, there were no survivors among the passengers onboard the aircraft.
“The aircraft was Abuja bound and had taken-off at about 6:45am from the Kaduna Military Airfield before the mishap. Bodies of the passengers have been recovered and fire fighters are already at the crash site to curtail fire from spreading to other buildings within the vicinity.
“Meanwhile, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has aborted his official trip to Port Harcourt to visit the site of the air crash and families of some of the deceased personnel in company of the Air Officer Commanding Training Command, Air Vice Marshal Alikali Mamu.
“The CAS has also set up an investigation panel headed by an Air Vice Marshal to unravel the cause of the accident with immediate effect.” The statement read.
Earlier, when our correspondent visit the scene the place was cordoned off and nobody was allowed to enter the except military officials and NEMA who were seen evacuating the remains of the aircraft.
A military insider at the scene said seven people who were said to lost their lives to the crash includes an Air officers’ wife and her two kids.
A woman identified as the sister to the late officer’s wife said “I was the one that dropped my sister at the airforce airport early this morning.
According to her the late woman and her two kids came to her house to spend some time and are on their way back to Abuja before the crash happened this morning.
She said “When I came to this scene this morning they told me my sister and her two kids has been taken to the medical centre and I have gone round all their hospital’s but I can’t find my sister and her kids.”
Meanwhile, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna state, has commiserated with the families of the persons that lost their lives in a plane crash on Saturday morning in Kaduna.
A statement signed by the governor’s spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, said the governor received the the news with shock and sadness.
The statement also said the governor also condoled the Chief of the Air Staff, and the officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force over the crash.
The governor was quoted in the statement as saying “I received the news of the plane crash in in Kaduna with sadness. We offer our deep condolences to the families who have been bereaved by this incident.
“May Almighty God in His infinite mercy grant their souls eternal rest and uphold their families in this moment of grief and sorrow.”
