The Chief of Air Force Staff Air Vice Marshal Sadiq Abubakar yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State described Dornier-228 plane crash in Kaduna as tragic.
“It was a very tragic one. I have gone to condole the families, the pilots that were involved in the accident,” he said.
The aircraft, with call sign NAF030, crashed yesterday into a house at Ribadu Cantonment, Kaduna.
Air Marshal Abubakar spoke at the 97 Special Operations Group (SOG), Air Force base, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, shortly after a visit to the scene of the crash.
The Air Chief, while responding to questions from newsmen, expressed pain over the crash saying a board had been constituted to investigate the immediate and remote cause of the sad incident.
“These are some of the hazards associated with flying,” he said.
The Air Chief was in Port Harcourt to stir his men against oil theft and illegal oil bunkering as the Air Force had acquired a marine patrol aircraft to enhance its operations around the marine environment.
A statement by Air Force spokesman, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, said though no casualty was recorded on ground, there were no survivors among the passengers onboard the aircraft.
He added that the aircraft was Abuja bound and had taken-off at about 6:45am from the Kaduna Military Airfield before the mishap.
Alonge said 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.
The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), had delayed his trip to Port Harcourt to visit the site of the crash and families of some of the deceased personnel in company of the Air Officer Commanding, Training Command, Air Vice Marshal Alikali Mamu.
Meanwhile, a witness at the crash site recounted her ordeal saying the bang of the plane on impact was frightening.
The witness who pleaded for anonymity being a resident of the barracks said: “Since I said my morning prayers, I did not go back to sleep because I had exams in the afternoon so I was busy reading when I heard a loud sound as if something was going to fall on the roof of my house.
“I ran to my children’s room before the plane hit the ground, the sound of the impact is something I cannot describe,” she said.
