Questions over what happened to a Nigerian Air Force aircraft before it disappeared from communication have emerged following its crash in the Igbokoda area of Ondo State, with Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa suggesting that a technical fault may have preceded the loss of signal.
The Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 aircraft, which was flying from Benin to Lagos on a routine mission, crashed in a swampy area opposite the Naval Base in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area, on Monday.
Aiyedatiwa, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today after the incident, said information available to him pointed to a possible mechanical problem rather than adverse weather as a likely factor in the crash.
According to him, the aircraft may have developed a fault while airborne, resulting in the loss of communication with the control tower before the crash.
“It is not a case of wanting to land like I said. So, some kind of technical problem might have happened to the aircraft that would make it lose signal,” the governor said.
He added that the relatively short distance between Benin and Lagos made it less likely that poor weather was responsible for the incident, noting that severe weather conditions could have prevented the aircraft from taking off in the first place.
Aiyedatiwa, however, stressed that the exact cause of the crash could only be established through investigation, saying “anything could have happened in terms of a mechanical issue.”
The incident triggered a search-and-rescue operation by the Nigerian Air Force after the aircraft went down in the swampy terrain around Igbokoda.
The governor said that, as of the time he spoke, there was no information indicating that any of the persons on board had survived the crash.
“So painful,” Aiyedatiwa said, adding that, based on the information available to him, “no survivor yet.”
The circumstances surrounding the aircraft’s loss of communication, its condition before the crash and what happened during the final stage of the flight are expected to form part of the investigation into the incident.
The crash has therefore shifted attention from the initial uncertainty surrounding the aircraft’s disappearance to the technical and operational events that preceded its impact.
