Kenneth Ehigiator/Gabriel Abatan
9 September 2008
Following the unavailability of the requisite helicopters for men of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) to access the crash site of the missing Beechcraft 1900D in search of the black boxes, the investigators will this morning begin the journey to the site on foot.
At the moment, the investigators are stranded at Bebi Strip, Obudu, Cross River State, where the helicopter of the Nigerian Air Force dropped them off last Friday, but could not continue the journey to the crash site because of its nature.
AIB spokesman, Mr. Tunji Oketunbi, who disclosed this in Lagos yesterday, said since the breakdown of the chopper of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) last week, it had become impossible for the agency's investigators to go to the crash site which he described as very difficult.
According to him, the investigators will start off the journey to the crash site from Obudu this morning by four wheel drive vehicles for two hours and continue the remaining six hours by trekking because of the inaccessibility of the area by vehicles.
"The investigators will take off by 6:00am tomorrow by four wheel drive vehicles and drive for some two hours to a village, from where they will continue the journey by trekking, and this will take another six hours to the crash site," Oketunbi said.
He said the investigators would be accompanied by 10 armed soldiers as well as hunters in the area to provide security for them against wild animals.
Oketunbi said it became necessary for the investigators to embark on the trek because all attempts by the AIB to secure helicopters for the operations had failed, stressing not even private operators could help.
He said: " We called Aero, we called Bristol Helicopters, but they said their helicopters could not do that kind of operation. The one we got from the Air Force is a gun ship, which is too heavy for that kind of operation."
He said the AIB was committed to retrieving the aircraft's two black boxes to ensure the seamless investigation of the crash.
Oketunbi added that the agency has not extended any invitation to the manufacturers of the aircraft as well as its engines, noting that it had also not sought any external assistance on the ongoing investigation of the crash.
On the DNA test on the remains of the crew members at the National Hospital in Abuja, the AIB spokesman said the agency was awaiting the result to be churned out by the hospital management.
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