… Says main wreckage still submerged as recovery operation continues

Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has stated that the pilot of the Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 aircraft that crashed at Igbokoda, headquarters of the Ilaje Local Council Area of the state, averted a bigger disaster by manoeuvring the ill-fated plane away from the community before it went down.

The governor made the disclosure on Wednesday during an on-the-spot assessment of the crash scene at a coastal community where search and recovery operations continued for the victims and the main wreckage.

According to Aiyedatiwa, residents who witnessed the incident said the aircraft appeared to be coming down with a sound suggesting a bad engine and was almost landing within the community.

He said the pilot managed to manoeuvre the aircraft away from the community before it landed about 200 metres away and went straight into the swamp.

Aiyedatiwa said only the pilot could explain the effort made to manoeuvre the aircraft away from the community, adding that had the plane crashed in the middle of the community, it would have resulted in a major catastrophe.

The aircraft with registration number NAF 931, which was carrying Nigerian Air Force personnel on a special mission from Benin to Lagos, crashed at Igbokoda on Monday with 25 souls on board.

The governor, who described the crash as a national tragedy, said no survivor had been found at the scene as of the time of his visit to the crash site alongside personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Air Force, divers, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Director for the Southwest, the State Emergency Management Agency director, and local residents who had participated in rescue efforts since Monday.

Aiyedatiwa, who described the scene as a “very gory sight”, with parts of bodies, clothes and jackets belonging to Air Force personnel, and broken aircraft parts recovered and preserved for further investigation, stated that the main body of the aircraft had not been sighted, as it was believed to be submerged in the swamp.

According to him, the difficulty in accessing the site prompted him to direct the Ministry of Works to deploy two amphibious machines, popularly known as swamp boogies, to open wider access through the waterways.

He said the machines had enabled rescue teams to move bigger boats closer to the crash site and were being used to excavate the soil in search of other parts of the wreckage or the main body of the aircraft.

The governor said the aircraft had still not been sighted as of the time of his visit, while Navy personnel and local divers continued searching the deeper sections of the area for possible bodies and the cockpit. He noted that the nature and depth of the swamp could have caused the aircraft to become deeply submerged in the mud.

“From construction experience and analysis of this area, for you to get to refusal level, it’ll get to about 30 kilometres deep,” he said.

Aiyedatiwa, who commiserated with President Bola Tinubu over the loss of the officers, sympathised with the families of the deceased and the Nigerian Air Force, describing the victims as able and young Nigerians who had signed up to defend and protect the territorial integrity of the country.

Aiyedatiwa urged Nigerians to continue praying for the families of the deceased, saying their deaths were not what anybody expected.

The governor, who described himself as a man of faith, said there was still the possibility of a miracle, citing the biblical accounts of Lazarus, who was raised after four days, and Jonah, who was swallowed by a fish before being brought to life on the shore.

He, however, said that based on what had been seen at the crash site, he doubted whether any of the victims could return to life.