Posted by By Kenneth Ehigiator & Charles Ozoemena on
PRESIDENT George Bush of the United States of America (USA) despatched, yesterday, to President Olusegun Obasanjo a letter requesting full investigation into the Saturday crash of the Bellview flight 210 from Lagos to Abuja.
*Police IG rules out terror attack
LAGOS - PRESIDENT George Bush of the United States of America (USA) despatched, yesterday, to President Olusegun Obasanjo a letter requesting full investigation into the Saturday crash of the Bellview flight 210 from Lagos to Abuja.
All 117 passengers on board and crew members perished in the crash. Among them was a US army major.
Vanguard gathered yesterday that security men investigating the crash were not ruling out sabotage. The police have already set up a team of crack detectives to investigate the crash.
President Bush's letter was conveyed to President Obasanjo by the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer.
President Obasanjo has already ordered special and detailed investigation into the crash.
The US President who also sent his condolence on the death of the First Lady, Mrs Stella Obasanjo expressed concern over the death of the American military officer identified as Heydon Joseph. Joseph was said to be the Chief of the Office of Defence Co-operation.
In a statement issued after her visit to the State House, Abuja yesterday, the US Assistant Secretary expressed profound sympathy to Nigerians over the crash, saying: "I would like to express my profound sympathy and condolences to President Obasanjo and his family at the loss of First Lady Stella Obasanjo.I would also like to extend condolences to the families of the victims of the Bellview flight that crashed at Ifo.
"The Embassy is directly affected by the crash because it was confirmed yesterday (Sunday) that Major Joseph Haydon, the Chief of Defence Cooperation, was among the passengers. A team of Embassy officials, including the Lagos Security Officer, visited the crash site yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and will go again today (Monday).
"In the meantime, the US military officials are working to support his family members in Nigeria and in the United States."
Other foreigners identified as being among the victims of the crashed Bellview flight are John Moru, Justice Akuri and Chiwuba of ActionAid, a non-governmental organisation engaged in HIV/AIDS advocacy.
The others are Oumar Diarra, Ecowas Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Political Affairs, Defence and Security, Emmanuel Quanye, ECOWAS Director of Finance in Nigeria, Peter Andreas, a consultant to the sub-regional group and Adele Lozenbo, a South African television producer who was on an assignment in Nigeria.
US to assist
Also, the US government has offered to assist Nigeria in investigating the crash of Bellview Airlines' flight 210.
The US offer came on a day the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, dismissed suggestions about terror attacks as the cause of the crash.
Aviation Minister, Prof. Babalola Borishade, said accident investigators were also being expected from other parts of the world to assist in the probe.
"The US ambassador has volunteered his government's support in the efforts. He called me yesterday to give this offer. "We are also expecting accident investigators from overseas who will come to render their expertise in efforts to ascertain the cause of the crash," Prof. Babalola said.
He said forensic soil texture experts were among the expatriates being expected to give a helping hand in the investigation, adding that the black box of the aircraft had not been recovered. He said the accident scene had been cordoned off to ensure that vital evidence that could help in the investigation were not tampered with.
The minister, who said the essence of the investigation was not to apportion blame but to prevent a recurrence, said the experts would come with equipment to assist in efforts to recover the black box,
Borishade confirmed the NCAA's claim that the aircraft was airworthy at the time of the crash. According to him, the aircraft had last February undergone a C-Check which has nine months to expire.He said wife of the co-pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Mrs. Mercy Eshun, was also on board at the time of the crash.
He said government responded promptly to the crash in terms of search and rescue, as mobilisation of rescue efforts started at about 11:00 p.m. on the night of the crash when the aircraft's location could not be ascertained
Explaining the circumstances that led to late discovery of the crash site at Lissa village, Prof. Babalola said the signals received based on the option that the aircraft might have plunged into the sea turned out to be from a ship. He said the foreclosing of that option gave rise to the thinking that the aircraft might have crashed at Kishi and Moshi Gada, a border village between Oyo and Kwara States and subsequent mobilisation of nine ambulances and 52 volunteers by the Kwara State government.
Also speaking to newsmen at the presidential wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos yesterday, the AIG in charge of operations, Mr. Mike Okiro, said nothing had pointed in the direction that the aircraft was a victim of terrorist attack. "I don't know about an attack on the aircraft. We discovered the crash scene and also found that all the passengers had died. We have cordoned off the crash scene for investigation," Okiro said.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General of Aviation Round Table (ART), Capt. Dele Ore, has asked for a public enquiry into the crash. He said the crash could have resulted from loss of consciousness of the pilot which the co-pilot didn't know of.
He said the crash could not have occurred as a result of engine failure, considering the force with which the aircraft hit the ground and the deep crater in created on impact.
Obasanjo orders full probe
President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered "special and detailed" investigation into the circumstances surrounding last Saturday's air mishap. Senior Special Assistant to this President, Mrs Oluremi Oyo, told correspondents that her boss gave the directive to the Aviation Minister, Professor Babalola Borishade.
"President Obasanjo has ordered the Minister of Aviation to do investigation into the air crash of Bellview plane," she said, revealing how deeply worried the President was over the loss of lives of more than 100 Nigerians in the crash. She said the President further directed the Minister of Aviation to "please involve the manufacturers of the aircraft and seek assistance from the International Civil Aviation Organisation and the United States authorities in the investigation."
Oyo said the President described the air crash incident as "a great loss" and prayed "God will continue to console the families of all those who have lost loved ones. It is indeed a trying period for all of us but we have the responsibility to continue to forge ahead as a people."
The president had all through Saturday night coordinated the search of the ill-fated aircraft when it was declared missing. It was in the process of the search that he received the shocking news of the death of his wife.
Relations storm crash site
Meanwhile, relations of the 117 passengers killed in the crash began struggling through the crash site yesterday in a vain search for recognisable remains.
Ocha Inedu, a 40-year-old civil engineer, came to the grim scene in a cocoa grove outside the village of Lissa to search for the remains of his younger brother. "I am here to see if I can at least collect whatever remained of him to take to the village for decent burial," he said amid the mud and steaming wreckage strewn around the crater where the plane crashed and disintegrated.
As he spoke, a police officer nearby scraped body parts into a polythene bag. "It is not possible to get a complete body of any victim. The bodies were scattered all over the place. Some human parts were hanging on trees," said Nigerian Red Cross official, Bayo Fasoranti.
Nigerian accident investigators believe that the main body of the plane ploughed into the ground, but some witnesses said the aircraft blew up in mid-air. A farmer identified as Tajudeen said nothing so terrifying had happened in the 62 years he had lived in the village.
"I was in my room on that night when I heard a loud noise and there was fire. Because it was dark, I could not locate the exact spot of the explosion. The next day, around mid-day, I saw policemen moving towards the scene and I followed them. What we saw was terrifying. Human parts, clothes, slippers, shoes littered everywhere. We also saw some damaged parts of the aircraft," he said.
Yesterday, almost 48 hours after the disaster, Nigerian police moved to seal off the area in a bid to protect what remains of the evidence ahead of the arrival of accident investigators. In doing so, they cut off a new source of income for the area's resourceful moped taxi divers who had been ferrying relatives and or the merely ghoulish along the dark and pot-holed road to the village.
"This is an opportunity to make money. And of course the road is bad," grinned one operator who said he hauled a relative along the muddy track. The 10 kilometre stretch would normally cost N40. Since the crash, the price has soared to N400.
Other locals took a grim pride in the new found notoriety of their sleepy community, now thronged by hundreds of rescue workers, reporters, grieving relatives and rubber-neckers. "People from all walks of live have been coming here to see what has happened," said Talabi Oguntade, a university student.
For the village, the crash was not only a traumatic experience, but is also a public health danger. "We appeal to the government to comb every part of the bush and remove the human parts to prevent an epidemic," said Tajudeen.
Another villager, Sola Ayinla, expressed similar fear. "The stench is becoming unbearable. This may constitute a health hazard," he said, covering his nose with a handkerchief. "Apart from clearing the wreckage and the human bodies, the government should disinfect the area," he said.
Investigators and rescue workers were yesterday combing through the shattered wreckage of the crashed airliner attempting to find the cause of the disaster and identify the shredded remains of the 117 people who had been on board.
Emergency workers, meanwhile, continued with the gruesome task of disentangling the shredded bodies of the passengers from the widely scattered remains of the jet, which came down in a cocoa grove in the village of Lissa shortly after taking off from Africa's biggest city. "There's no chance of survivors, as you can see. Bodies in pieces and human parts are being picked up by the rescue team," said Borisade.
The forensic teams will have to find out why an apparently airworthy aircraft, of a model in constant use by airlines across the world, should have suffered such a catastrophic failure as it flew through an electrical storm. The director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Fidelis Onyeriri, said the plane was 24 years old and had passed a technical inspection, which is valid for 18 months, in February.