Collins Edomaruse, Okechukwu Kanu
5 May 2002
Lagos And Yakubu Musa in Kano With Agency Reports — The Kano Tragedy
Tragedy struck the nation yesterday following the death of Sports Minister, Mr Ishaya Mark-Aku and 73 others in a plane crash.
Also killed in the crash are the wife of Lt-General Jeremiah Useni (rtd), Mrs. Julie Useni and their last son, Danjuma. A passenger, Najib Ibrahim and a crew member, however, survived the crash.
The BAC 1-11 500 Series belonging to Executive Airline Services (EAS) Airlines crashed at about 1.35 p.m. at Gwammaja near Kano, three minutes after take-off from the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport for Lagos.
Eye-witnesses further said they saw the plane swaying from side to side just after takeoff, and then it went into a nose dive.
It came down in a densely populated area, ploughing through several buildings including two mosques before it came to a halt and burst into flames.
Terrified residents, screaming and sobbing, were reported to be searching for survivors in the shattered pieces of aircraft and crumbled homes.
The Airlines spokesman, Mr Idris Adama, told journalists that the ill-fated plane with registration number 5N ESF, was on a routine flight service from Lagos through Jos, connecting Kano and with Lagos as its final destination.
The grief-stricken spokes-man also said there were 69 passengers and seven crew members on board. Seventeen of the passengers boarded the plane in Kano.
Although he would not speak on the cause of the incident, THISDAY however gathered that the crash, which happened three minutes after take-off, resulted from a failed engine that went beyond the control of the pilot, Peter Ineh and his co-pilot, whose name was given simply as Adegboye. Adama did not give details of those on board.
He, however, assured sympathisers who had thronged its offices, that: "As soon as we receive a faxed copy of the manifest from Kano, we shall paste it on our notice board for all to see."
Adama also said that victims of the accident were "immediately" evacuated to Aminu Kano Hospital, kano, for attention.
Asked to give further details of the crash, he said: "I cannot give you any other information beyond all I have said. Besides, I cannot give you any technical detail of the incident as I am not in a position to do that.
"Please, note that we are yet to receive detailed report of the accident as we are still liaising with our offices in Kano and in Jos," he explained.
The two survivors were rescued from the wreckage of aircraft, which crashed and caught fire shortly after take-off.
Residents said that as the plane came down, it hit a building in the heavily populated district of Ungwar Maja about one kilometre from the airport on the outskirts of Kano. It ploughed through two other buildings, came to a halt and then burst into flames, they said.
"There is a massive mobilisation to evacuate residents of the area," a Gwammaja resident said. Fire-fighters and rescue workers were on the scene, trying to pull survivors from the wreckage. Rescue workers said because the crash occurred in a densely populated residential area, the casualty toll was likely to be higher than the number of passengers on board.
One local resident said people could be heard inside the wreckage screaming for help, but they perished because fire-fighters had no water and could not put out the fire.
The plane had arrived safely in Kano from Jos, and had just set off for Lagos when it plunged to the ground.
There has not been a major air disaster in Nigeria since 1996 when 142 people died as a Boeing 727 belonging to Associated Development Company (ADC) Airline plunged into a lagoon outside Lagos.
Nigeria deregulated its airline industry in the mid-1980s and about a dozen private companies, including EAS, sprang up to compete with state carrier, Nigeria Airways.
Correspondents say there are concerns about the use of older aircraft by the private domestic carriers.
In April, the Federal government announced a ban on the use of aircraft more than 22 years old, a move that triggered strong protests from private airline operators.
An Associated Press reporter on the scene soon after the crash saw at least one body, that of a woman, carried out. A neighbourhood resident said he helped pull a survivor, who had bone jutting out of his forehead, from the plane.
Other residents, terrified, screaming and sobbing, searched for more dead or living among the plane's shattered metal and the rubble of buildings.
Umar Suleman, a resident said he saw the plane "wobbling" in the air seconds before the crash. Terrified residents fled just before the plane smashed into two mosques and other buildings.
When Suleiman returned and joined others trying to give help, he found one man sitting on a seat in the plane, "his forehead broken," with bone jutting out.
The man was alive. Suleman said he helped him from the rubble. Other residents said their searches turned up no survivors.
The neighbourhood's people said they were worried especially for any who might have been caught inside the mosques, praying, when the plane hit the building.
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