The-Chief-of-Air-Staff-Air-Vice-Marshal-SB-Abubakar-inspecting-Alfa-Jet-Aircraft-during-his-Operational-Visit-to-99-ACTG-Kanji
Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, has visited the scene of Saturday morning crash involving a Dornier DO 228 in Kaduna state.
The visit came just as the Air Force opened investigation into the crash, the third since September 1997.
On September 17, 2006 another Dornier Do 228 crashed in Obudu, killing all the 13 senior military officers on board.
The latest crash happened at 6.45 a.m at Ribadu Cantonment (Old NDA).
All the seven people on board died. Women, believed to be relatives of the victims, were seen rolling on the ground and weeping profusely.
Alhaji Musa Ilallah, the North West Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), confirmed the crash in Kaduna.
“We received a report that there was a helicopter crash at the old NDA. We immediately reached out to the Red Cross, Civil Defense Corps, and the Kaduna State Fire Service, among others, and went for rescue.
“According to the report, the helicopter was on its way to Abuja with four crew members and three passengers, but crashed a few minutes after takeoff from the air force base, with no survivor.
“The helicopter crashed on part of a residential building and sank into the sand and luckily there was no one in the building otherwise there would have been more casualties’’, Ilallah said.
The coordinator said that the corpses, most of which were in pieces, had been moved to the Air Force Base Hospital.