Nigeria Air Force plane crash kills 25

The Nigerian Air Force has revised the death toll from Monday’s plane crash in Ondo State to 25, after initially reporting that 32 people had been aboard the aircraft.

Air Force spokesman Air Commodore, Ehimen Ejodame, said Tuesday as reported by Africanews, that Flight NAF 931 was carrying 25 people, comprising five crew members and 20 passengers, and that no survivors had been found.

The ATR-42 twin-engine turboprop aircraft crashed near Igbokoda in Ilaje, an oil-producing area in southern Nigeria, while travelling from Benin City to Lagos on what the Air Force described as a routine mission.

The revised figure followed an earlier announcement by Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, that all 32 people believed to have been aboard had died. The military later accounted for the occupants and released the names of those killed.

Some civilians, including family members of military personnel, were among those on board. Defence Headquarters spokesman, Major General Samaila Uba, said there were “some members of families on board”.

Tinubu and Nigeria’s military chiefs have ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash.

“This is a painful moment for our armed forces and for the entire nation,” Tinubu said on Monday as he declared three days of national mourning.

Rescue teams searched the crash site, with footage circulating on social media showing people gathered near a river as boats were used in the recovery operation.

The accident is among the deadliest involving Nigeria’s military in recent years.

In May 2021, Nigeria’s then Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 other officers were killed when their aircraft crashed while attempting to land in Kaduna State during bad weather.

In August 2015, seven people were killed when a military aircraft crashed into a house in northern Nigeria.

That same month, six people, including an American pilot, died when a helicopter crashed into a lagoon in Lagos.

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