With the latest crash of the Nigerian Air Force airplane in Ondo State, which claimed 25 lives, it has turn out to be crucial for the Nigerian authorities to provoke pressing and deliberate actions to strengthen oversight of ageing navy fleets, and conduct a complete audit of the serviceability and airworthiness of navy plane to finish the recurring accidents and avoidable lack of lives of officers and males of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Ejiofor Alike experiences
The October 5, 2026 air accident involving a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) ATR-42 plane at Igbokoda in Ilaje Local Government Area (LGA) of Ondo State, which claimed 25 lives, has added to the record of navy plane incidents that claimed lives of officers and males of the Nigerian Armed Forces lately.
The NAF authorities claimed the plane crashed whereas on a routine mission from Benin City to Lagos.
However, a younger man, who claimed that his sister was one of many NAF officers on board the ill-fated flight, alleged on a video that has gone viral that the flight initially commenced from Abuja to Benin City and that his sister knowledgeable him that the airplane was defective and was being mounted in Benin City.
As was normally the case with earlier crashes of navy plane, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sunday Aneke, stated he had directed the structure of a panel to analyze the unlucky incident.
However, related investigations of earlier incidents couldn’t avert the October 5 catastrophe.
It needs to be famous that whereas civilian planes haven’t been concerned in main air disasters since June 3, 2012 when Dana Air’s McDonnell Douglas MD-80 plane crashed in Lagos on account of dual-engine failure, navy plane have continued to be concerned in deadly accidents.
This has raised speculations that corruption and poor budgetary provisions could have hampered NAF’s capability to maintain the serviceability and airworthiness of its plane.
NAF Dornier 228 plane (NAF030) crashed right into a home on the Ribadu Cantonment in Kaduna on August 29, 2015, shortly after takeoff from the Kaduna Military Airfield. A hearth erupted, destroying the home and the plane with all of the seven folks on board the flight killed.
Barely two months in a while October 10, 2015, a NAF F-7Ni fighter jet crashed in Hong Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State, whereas returning to base from a counter-insurgency mission, and the pilot, who was the only real occupant, misplaced his life.
Before the then Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (rtd.) arrange an investigation panel to unravel the distant and fast causes of the accident, NAF had dominated out poor upkeep and attributed the crash to unhealthy climate and never enemy assault.
In one other incident, a NAF Beechcraft King Air B350i with registration quantity NAF201 crashed on February 21, 2021, close to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja after reporting engine failure, and all of the seven navy personnel on board the flight misplaced their valuable lives.
On May 21, 2021, the then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 different senior navy officers had been killed in an ill-fated plane that crashed close to the Kaduna International Airport whereas the navy officers had been on their option to the passing out parade of normal recruits slated for the next day.
The different victims had been Brigadier-General Mohammed Abdulkadir; Brigadier-General Olatunji Olayinka; Brigadier-General Abdulrahman Kuliya; Major Lawal Aliyu Hayat; Major Nura Hamza; Flight Lieutenant Alfred Ayodeji Olufade; Flight Lieutenant Taiwo Olufemi Asaniyi; Sergeant Umar Saidu; Sergeant Adesina Isaiah; and Aircraftman Oyedepo Matthew.
NAF subsequently mandated Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), to steer the investigation into the crash.
Three months after the crash, the AIB submitted the preliminary report back to the then Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao (rtd.).
A joint assertion by Gabkwet and the General Manager, Public Affairs, AIB, Tunji Oketunbi, acknowledged that the preliminary report contained a complete of 27 preliminary findings and eight security suggestions for fast implementation.
Preliminary experiences, in response to Oketunbi, weren’t the ultimate experiences.
Unfortunately, that was all that was heard of the crash.
Due to the non-release of the ultimate report on the incident, there have been conspiracy theories on the reason for the crash.
Four years later, the previous Head of the covert Operation Service Wide (OSW), Major General Danjuma Ali-Keffi (rtd.), alleged that Attahiru’s loss of life was orchestrated by way of “internal hostility, operational sabotage, and high-level corruption.”
According to him, Attahiru was killed on account of his efforts to scrub up corruption and sabotage inside the navy.
However, a former Chief of Training and Operations, Air Vice Marshal Gbolahan Adekunle (rtd.), debunked the allegation of sabotage and urged Ali-Keffi to resolve no matter points that he had with the Nigerian Army slightly than alleging sabotage on the loss of life of the previous Chief of Army Staff.
Few days after the NAF airplane crash in Ondo State, considered one of NAF’s helicopters landed on a farmland in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, fuelling suspicion that it developed a fault, which compelled the pilot to land in such an uncommon atmosphere.
The helicopter was getting back from an operation in opposition to suspected kidnappers within the Ogbadigbo space of Benue State, close to the Enugu-Benue boundary.
But the Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, stated the touchdown was “in accordance with established operational and safety procedures following combat missions.”
Meanwhile, the brother of a NAF sergeant who died within the navy plane crash in Ondo State, has claimed that he had proof suggesting that the plane had developed a technical fault earlier than the incident.
He made the allegations in a video by which he shared screenshots of messages he stated had been exchanged between him and his late sister earlier than the crash.
In the screenshots, the late sergeant reportedly knowledgeable him that the plane had developed a fault, described in navy aviation as a “snag”, whereas in Benin City. She additionally allegedly advised him that she didn’t have N17,000 required for transportation to return house.
The brother subsequently shared what seemed to be a switch receipt exhibiting that he had despatched N17,000 to his sister, adopted by a message by which she thanked him.
The bereaved brother questioned how a sergeant who had served within the Nigerian Air Force for greater than 11 years couldn’t have N17,000.
He additionally disputed the navy’s account that the plane was working on a routine mission from Benin to Lagos, claiming that the plane had come from Abuja.
The bereaved brother additional demanded to know who authorised the plane to proceed its journey to Lagos regardless of the alleged fault, asking, “who gave the command to manage that aircraft to Lagos?”
It is heartwarming to notice that President Bola Tinubu has ordered an intensive investigation into the October 5 crash.
The Nigerian authorities can’t afford to deal with this newest crash like different earlier accidents.
President Tinubu ought to examine the attainable position of corruption, poor budgetary allocations and non-release of allotted funds for plane upkeep within the frequent navy plane accidents.
Enough of the useless lack of the valuable lives of navy officers and males in avoidable air incidents.
