The Minister of Defence, Maj.-Gen Bashir Magashi (Rtd), on Thursday, advised the officers of the Nigerian Air Force not to allow the recent Kaduna air crash to dampen their morale.
Magashi specifically charged the officers, airmen and airwomen of the Force to intensify the explosive tempo of anti-banditry and counter-terrorism across all parts of the country.
He lamented that the incident depleted human capital assets of the NAF at a time air powers were being deployed to tackle the raging insecurity.
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The minister, in a statement by his media aide, Mohammad Abdulkadri, described the death of the two pilots as “heroic”.
The statement read in part, “The Defence Minister, with a deep sense of loss, said the sad occurrence has unfortunately depleted the human capital assets of the Nigerian Air Force in this challenging times when the service is professionally and tactically deploying its rich Air powers in joint operating environment with land forces to end all threats to national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Daily Trust had reported that Flight Lieutenant Abubakar Muhammed Alkali and his colleague, Flight Lieutenant Elijah Haruna Karatu, who were on a training mission, lost their lives at NAF Base, Kaduna on Tuesday.
Authorities of the Force had subsequently set up a probe panel to investigate the cause of the Super Mushshak trainer aircraft crash.
