*Aircraft Developed Engine Fault, Grounded Overnight In Benin For Repairs Before Taking Off

A COMBINED team of the Nigerian Navy (NN) and Marine Police have intensified search for bodies of victims and wreckage of the crashed Nigeria Air Force (NAF) aircraft in the swampy area of Igbokoda in Ilaje Local Council of Ondo State.

    The military aircraft, carrying 25 persons- 20 passengers and five crew members- went down close to a naval base in the area about 9am on Monday, October 5.

    The state Commissioner of Police (CP), Felix Ohuagwu, who led a team from the Command to assess the situation, told journalists that officers of the state Marine Police had been working with the Navy and locals to recover the remains of the victims and the wreckage of the aircraft.

    Some of the locals said they were alerted by a loud noise of the crash, but the aircraft sank into the swamp with no survivors.

    Officers of the Navy have since cordoned off the area and restricted movement to the crash site as residents and sympathisers trooped to the scene, with many of them merely taking photographs.

     NAF had confirmed and released the identities of the victims of the crash.

     Rescue operations were still ongoing at the crash site in the Obe-Rebby swamp on Wednesday morning, over 48 hours after the incident.

     So far, no bodies had been recovered from the swamp.

    According to SaharaReporters, the NAF ATR-42 aircraft, marked NAF 931, was actually en route to Lagos from Abuja on Sunday, October 5, with some passengers to be dropped in Benin City, the Edo State capital. 

    The medium gathered that after landing in Benin City to disembark the Benin-bound passengers, the aircraft developed an engine fault on the same day and could not proceed to Lagos.

    Multiple sources, including one of the Benin-bound passengers, told SaharaReporters that the official narrative that the aircraft was on a routine Benin-to-Lagos flight on Monday was incomplete, adding that the aircraft actually started its journey from Abuja on Sunday, heading to Lagos, but with passengers who were to be dropped in Benin City.

    SaharaReporters quoted a source as saying: “It was supposed to go to Lagos from Abuja on Sunday, but it had some passengers going to Benin. They needed to drop them in Benin first.

    “However, it developed an engine fault when they got to Benin and they could not go immediately to Lagos.

    “The aircraft was then worked upon by technicians in Benin overnight. So, the aircraft was grounded overnight in Benin City and after engineers claimed to have rectified the fault, it took off on Monday morning for Lagos before it crashed minutes after takeoff in Ondo.”

    It quoted another source who identified himself as a relative of one of the victims as saying: “We were to receive him on Sunday. He, however, told us their aircraft developed a fault in Benin City and needed to be worked on.

    “That we should be expecting him whenever they certified it okay, but he wasn’t sure it would be that Sunday. He actually had nothing to do in Benin. It was an Abuja-to-Lagos flight that had to drop passengers in Benin.

    “Why is the NAF claiming the aircraft was on a routine mission from Benin to Lagos when the incident happened? The affected passengers boarded the aircraft in Abuja and were going to Lagos. It wasn’t on any routine mission.

    “They made it look like the aircraft was on its official role of surveillance, but not at all. This aircraft and NAF 930 were known for transporting VIPs all around Nigeria.”

    SaharaReporters learnt that the crashed aircraft’s official roles included maritime surveillance of Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone, anti-piracy, anti-oil bunkering, anti-smuggling, pollution control, search and rescue, overland Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and limited transport duties.

    The newspaper reported that it reached out to NAF spokesman, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, for comment on Tuesday, but was directed to a Flight Lieutenant said to be at the headquarters for any comment on the incident, and on Wednesday, again directed the reporter back to the public relations office.

     It further quoted another military source as saying: “They worked on the aircraft throughout Sunday. The technicians in Benin said they had fixed it. That was why it spent the night in Benin and left on Monday morning for Lagos.

    “Unfortunately, it crashed a few minutes after takeoff.”

    It was reported that the aircraft lost contact with air traffic controllers about 9:13a.m. on Monday, a few minutes after departing Benin Airport, before crashing near the naval base in Igbokoda.

    Checks by the newspaper showed that NAF 931 had a history of prolonged groundings for maintenance.

    In September 2013, it was spotted at Edinburgh Airport in Scotland for maintenance at the Air Contractors facility, and later to the Rheinland Air Service (RAS) facility in Monchengladbach, Germany, in January 2022 for Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM).

    It remained on the ground there for almost three years until late December 2024, when it returned to Nigeria, according to Military Africa.

    Rheinland Air Service was one of only three companies worldwide certified for the repair and overhaul of ATR control elements, such as landing flaps, and NAF engineers participated in the reactivation process in Germany.

    NAF 931 was a military Maritime Patrol variant fitted with ATOS mission system, Gabbiano radar and EOST-45 sensor.

    Since its induction, NAF 931 had been operated by the 81 Air Maritime Group in Benin City, and was routinely deployed with the 75 Strike Group in Yola, Adamawa State, for counter-insurgency operations under Operation Lafiya Dole.

    It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127E engines, with Hamilton Standard 568F six-blade propellers, and had a maximum cruise speed of 280 KTAS (518 km/h), a range of about 1,500 nautical miles and an endurance of over eight hours.