If help had come early, the over 153 persons, who died in the Dana commercial air plane crash at Iju, Lagos, yesterday might have saved, residents have said. According to them, the aircraft did not explode immediately it crashed. It exploded after about 20 minutes…
‘’When we go to the scene, we saw
the plane on the building and it did not explode upon landing. The only
fire from the aircraft was from the cockpit which was not much. It was
only ten of us that first got to the scene. That little fire would have
been quenchable if there was immediate emergency response from fire
fighters. We were even using sachets of pure water to put off the fire
before we heard loud explosion after 20 minutes.’’ a witness disclosed to Vanguard newspaper.
Meanwhile, the passengers in the 83 year old Dana plane were
crying for help before it landed, eyewitnesses told punch newspaper that they
heard the passengers crying for help.
“They were
crying, help, help, help but no one could do anything after the plane had
crashed. we all rushed to the scene after the plane crashed but we did not know
what to do as the smoke was too much for us…” they said
Minutes before the plane departed
It was also reported that one of the passengers
contacted his family via phone that the plane had the problems saying “pray for
me, our plane has problems…”
The Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety
Corps, Ogun State, Mr. Ayobami Omiyale, said, “The head of the plane crashed
into a two-storey building while the middle and tail entered the warehouse of a
publishing company.
“All the bodies were found in the two-story
building. We are yet to get any corpse from the publishing house which has a
larger part of the plane in it.
Dana
airline began commercial flights on November 10, 2008.
Following is a chronology of major air accidents in Nigeria:
Sept. 26, 1992 – A Nigerian Air Force C-130 crashed minutes
after taking off from Lagos airport. Around 200 people died.
June 25, 1995 – A Harka Airlines Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-134
crashed at Lagos airport, killing 15 people.
Nov. 13, 1995 – A Nigeria Airways Boeing 737 crashed on
landing in Kaduna, killing nine people.
Nov. 7, 1996 – A Boeing 727 operated by Nigeria’s ADC
crashed on its way from Port Harcourt to Lagos. All 142
passengers and nine crew died.
May 4, 2002 – A Nigerian EAS Airlines BAC 1-11 crashed in
Kano. At least 148 people were killed, 75 on the plane and at
least 73 on the ground.
Oct. 22, 2005 – A Nigerian Bellview Airlines Boeing 737
airliner crashed shortly after take-off from Lagos. All 111
passengers and six crew were killed.
Dec. 10, 2005 – A Nigerian Sosoliso Airlines DC9 from Abuja
crashed on landing in Port Harcourt, killing 106 people, half of
them schoolchildren on their way home for Christmas.
Sept. 17, 2006 – Twelve Nigerian military personnel, mostly
high-ranking officers, were killed in a plane crash in Benue
state. Six survived.
Oct. 29, 2006 – An ADC airliner with 114 passengers on board
crashed and burned after take-off from Abuja, killing 96 people.
June 3, 2012 – A Dana Air passenger plane carrying 147
people crashed in the Agege suburb of Lagos
