Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State was
the last person rescued from the crashed Cessna
208 aircraft he piloted. An official of the Nigerian
Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), who
participated in the Search and Rescue
operations, said the governor was stuck on the
cockpit at the crash site and required extra
carefulness to bring him out .
“Others who sat behind him, were immediately
evacuated, making him the last person to be
rescued. He was stuck on the cockpit,” he said.
Meanwhile, fresh facts have emerged as to what
might have caused the crash.
According to a top official of the aviation
ministry, the governor and his entourage
allegedly disobeyed the flight rule of Yola
Airport, which, at the moment, operates a
sunrise to sunset arrangement, as it does not
have night operations facilities. Consequently,
the airport closes at about 6pm, but the
governor and his team radioed Air Traffic
Control in Yola that they will be arriving by
6.45pm .
This made the ATCs to await their arrival. Five
minutes to the expected time of arrival, the ATCs
lost contac
t with the Cessna airplane. “The control
tower people became worried and they alerted the
Airport Fire department and immediately, a Search
and Rescue operation was initiated using the
coordinates of when he last contacted the tower. He
established contacts with tower five minutes to
landing and thereafter nothing was heard from
him. Under normal operations, he was not
supposed to come in at that time.
He ought to have come in before 6pm but he
radioed that he will arrive by 6.45pm; so the
tower was expecting him, but never got here.
The airplane went down some minutes to 7pm.
By right, the airplane ought to have been closed
but they had to wait for them,” the source said.
The source further said Suntai had no co-pilot on
board and having lost contact with tower means
he likely had a technical hitch, though he never
at any time said he was in distress .
The source also said the airplane took off from an
unmanned airstrip in Jalingo, as neither
navigational equipment of NAMA nor its staff were
present at the place. “So, it calls to question how he
has been taking off from an unmanned airspace in
Jalingo and landing in Yola. So, who has been
clearing him for takeoff from an airstrip without air
traffic services,” he queried. Officials of the Accident
Investigations Bureau (AIB) have taken over the
investigation and cordoned off the crash site.
A source in AIB said the bureau would
reconstruct what might have probably happened
and also study the black boxes. The Cessna 208 is
a single turboprop engine, fixed-gear short-haul
regional airliner and utility aircraft built in the
United States by Cessna. The airplane typically
seats nine passengers, with a single person crew,
although with a FAR Part 23 waiver, it can seat up
to fourteen passengers. The aircraft is also used
for cargo feeder liner operations .
(SaturdaySunreport)
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