The traditional ruler of Igbokoda, Oba Afolabi Odidiomo, has commended the pilot of the Nigerian Air Force aircraft that crashed in the Ondo community, saying his actions spared the town from a greater disaster.
Odidiomo, who spoke with journalists on Wednesday, said the crash would have caused more devastation if the aircraft had come down within the town.
The NAF ATR-42 aircraft, with registration number NAF 931, crashed in the Igbokoda area of Ondo State on Monday, October 5, while on a routine flight from Benin to Lagos.
The Nigerian Air Force confirmed that all 25 people on board, comprising five crew members and 20 passengers, died in the crash.
The aircraft went down in a swampy area near the Naval Base in Igbokoda after air traffic controllers lost contact with it at about 9:13am.
Search and rescue operations were subsequently launched as authorities continued efforts to recover the victims and wreckage from the difficult terrain.
President Bola Tinubu declared three days of national mourning over the incident and ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash.
Reflecting on the incident and the ongoing recovery operation, Odidiomo said residents had been deeply disturbed by the tragedy but were grateful that the aircraft did not crash within the town.
“We may have been hearing about crashes, but we’ve never had the first-hand experience as we’re having today. For the past three days, all of us have been so disturbed, but there’s only one thing that I know unifies the whole of us here. We celebrate the pilot extremely for his sacrifice of his own life and the lives of those on the plane and sparing us in this town, because if the plane had fallen in this town or anywhere, the effect would have been more than this,” he said.
The monarch, however, expressed sadness over the loss of lives within the community’s territory.
“But nevertheless, we are pained that lives have to be lost in this manner within our own territory. We are not happy about this,” he said.
According to him, residents mobilised immediately after witnessing the aircraft go down, with some heading to the area to ascertain what had happened.
He said two fishermen who were in the area at the time escaped unhurt and helped residents locate the crash site.
“And one or two persons who were fishing there were luckily not touched, they were the ones who directed people to the exact location,” he said.
Odidiomo said residents initially went to the site with tools, hoping they might find survivors trapped inside the aircraft.
“And when people were going, people went with axe and whatever that in case people are still alive, that they can cut the plane and still bring them out,” he said.
He said they found only remnants of the aircraft when they reached the location.
“But unfortunately, when they got there, they only saw remnants of the plane and they know that the thing must have sank into that place,” he said.
The monarch said the community was among the first to reach the crash site and subsequently directed security agencies to the location.
“So we were the first and it doesn’t take us time to tell the security agents where the place is,” he said.
He said accessing the site remained difficult because the area was not navigable, forcing the community to create a route to the location.
“I am not comfortable, but I’m not blaming anybody for it. To have access into that area has been challenging, challenging in the sense that it is not an area that is navigable,” he said.
“We have to create a way to go there,” he added.
Odidiomo said an excavator had since created access to the site, while the community was considering other means of recovering the remaining wreckage.
“Now that the Afibian excavator has been able to create paths to that place, we are also waiting to see what it can do. If it cannot do anything and it can locate whatever is left of the plane, I can assure you that we’ll bring it out,” he said.
He said the community had also discussed the possibility of using a large locally made boat and chains to retrieve parts of the aircraft.
“We have started meeting, discussing on possibility of how to bring it out and it might not be the orthodox way,” he said.
“But then there’s a way we could bring a very big locally made boat with chains around it and people will go down to tie it around whatever is there, so the big boats can actually with its weight pull it out.”
The monarch said the recovery operation remained challenging because of concerns that bodies could be in the surrounding water.
“But then the only problem I have now is that the water around that place must have been infested with bodies and so the water will stink terribly,” he said.
He added that despite the risks, the community remained willing to assist with efforts to recover the wreckage and victims.
“So for anybody to want to dive in there to tie a chain around the thing to bring it out, I don’t know yet, but we’ll do it,” he said.
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