Chinedu Eze
20 April 2008
Lagos — The Federal Government may declare the crew members of the missing Beechcraft 1900D dead.
The aircraft, which is owned by Wings Aviation, disappeared on March 15 on its way to Bebi Airstrip from Lagos, and in spite of frantic search for the wreckage of the aircraft around the Obudu area and other parts of Cross River state, where the pilot last spoke with air traffic controllers before its disappearance, the aircraft and its crew members have not been found.
There are, however, indications that Nigeria's eastern neighbour, Cameroon may hold the clue of the missing Beechcraft 1900D aircraft. A senior official of one of the aviation agencies told THISDAY that since the aircraft has not been found there are indications that it would be declared missing by the Federal Government after 90 days of its disappearance. The aircraft had on board a pilot, Capt Augustin Egbedi, 60; the co-pilot, Capt Mohammed Tanko and the 24-year old Miss Fubrata Alex, a marketing officer. The source said agencies involved in search and rescue have moved to search and recover after it seemed hopeless that any of member of the crew members could still be alive if the aircraft had crashed.
"The international standard for search and recover procedure is to declare the crew dead after 90 days of unsuccessful search. The families can go to court and press for compensation as enshrined in international civil aviation convention. We are now on search and recover as we have left search and rescue", the source said.
THISDAY however gathered that the Federal Gover-nment believes that if the aircraft did not crash, then Cameroon would be the next destination of the aircraft when it left Nigeria because it followed the Ikrop flight route from Enugu to Bebi which also leads to the Central African country.
Since the disappearance of the aircraft, the Federal Government has been making entreaties to Cameroon to help in the search. The aviation authorites in Nigeria have written two letters to Cameroon's embassy in Nigeria and as the letters were not replied, it sent a delegation last week led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, with some members of the Committee. The delegation included the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Aviation, Capt Shehu Iyal.
A source told THISDAY that investigation done so far revealed two options; either that the aircraft crashed or it got out of the country through Cameroon. These are the reasons why the Federal Government has been seeking the cooperation of Cameroon, which has been in a diplomatic rift with Nigeria since the issue of Bakkassi Peninsula some years ago. "Mr. President is very concerned about the missing aircraft and that is why, not withstanding the two earlier letters written to Cameroon that were not replied, it still sent a delegation to the government of that country," the source told THISDAY.
THISDAY also learnt that the Federal Government is highly disturbed by the incident and that was why it set up the technical committee on the missing aircraft and charged it to investigate the failure of search and rescue mission and the misinformation of the public on the missing aircraft. The committee headed by Air Vice Marshal S. A. Atawodi was also charged to examine the statutory responsibility of all relevant agencies involved in search and rescue operations and the subsequent roles they played with respect to the missing aircraft.
Government also asked the committee to examine the Total Radar Coverage Project (TRACON) implementation "which the government considers highly critical to safe air operations" and recommend measures to ensure speedy implementation of the project to enhance safety in the nation's airspace.
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