The traditional ruler of Igbokoda, Oba Afolabi Odidiomo, has praised the pilot of the Nigerian Air Force aircraft that crashed in the Ondo community, saying the pilot’s actions prevented the incident from causing an even greater catastrophe.
Odidiomo made the remarks while speaking with journalists on Wednesday, following the crash that killed all 25 people aboard the aircraft.
The NAF ATR-42 aircraft, with registration number NAF 931, crashed in Igbokoda, Ondo State, on Monday, October 5, during a routine flight from Benin to Lagos.
The Nigerian Air Force subsequently confirmed that the aircraft was carrying five crew members and 20 passengers, with no survivors recorded.
The aircraft crashed into a swampy area close to the Naval Base in Igbokoda after air traffic controllers lost communication with it at about 9:13am. Rescue teams were deployed to the area, while the recovery of the victims and wreckage was complicated by the difficult terrain.
President Bola Tinubu declared three days of national mourning following the tragedy and directed that a comprehensive investigation be conducted to determine the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Reflecting on the incident, Odidiomo said the crash had left residents deeply shaken, noting that the pilot’s actions helped protect the town from potentially greater destruction.
“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.
Despite the community’s gratitude that the aircraft did not crash in a densely populated part of the town, the monarch said residents were saddened that the disaster occurred within their 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.
He explained that residents began responding almost immediately after seeing the aircraft go down, sending people to the area to ascertain the location and determine what had happened.
“It happens because we are a part of our territory and the minute we saw the plane go down, we sent people there to determine what had happened, whether it actually fell in there or not,” he said.
Odidiomo said two fishermen who were in the vicinity of the crash survived and subsequently helped residents identify the precise location of the aircraft.
“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.
According to the monarch, some residents who headed to the crash site initially carried tools in the hope that they might find survivors trapped inside the aircraft.
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“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.
However, the search party found only fragments of the aircraft at 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 Igbokoda residents were among the first people to reach the area and subsequently guided security personnel to the crash site.
“So we were the first and it doesn’t take us time to tell the security agents where the place is,” he said.
He noted that the difficult terrain had made access to the location particularly challenging, as the area could not easily be reached by conventional means.
“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 already opened a path to the crash location, while the community was prepared to support further efforts to recover the 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 disclosed that community leaders had begun considering alternative ways to retrieve the aircraft remnants, including the possible use of a large locally made boat and chains.
“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, however, expressed concern about the condition of the water surrounding the crash site, particularly the possibility that victims could still be submerged in the area.
“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 acknowledged the dangers associated with attempting to enter the water but said the community remained willing to explore possible ways of assisting with the recovery.
“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.