Calabar — About 20 months after the crash of the Beechcraft 1900D aircraft belonging to Wings Aviation Limited, into the hills of Bushi Village in Obalinku Local Government area of Cross River State, the Accidents Investigation Bureau has finally released the remains of the victims to their families.

The ill-fated twin turbo prop 19-seater aircraft with registration number 5N-JAH crashed on March 15, 2008 while on a routine flight from Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos to Bebi Airstrip, close to the Obudu Ranch Resort but the wreckage was discovered on August 30, 2008 by hunters from the area.

The crew made up of the pilot, Capt. Austin Egbedi; co-pilot, Ahmed Tongo and marketing executive, Ms Fubarata Jack all lost their lives in the crash.

Presenting the remains to representatives of the families in a brief ceremony in Calabar, yesterday spokesman of AIB, Mr. Tunji Okutiji said the AIB commenced investigations into the crash on September 3, 2008 after recovering the remains of the victims, mainly bones, from the crash site.

Okutiji, who represented the commissioner, AIB, Mr. Sam Oduselu said pathologists from University of Calabar Teaching Hospital conducted autopsy on the bones and were able to identify the bones.

However, he said that for scientific confirmation the bones were sent to a laboratory in South Africa for DNA analysis.

"Unfortunately, the laboratory despite numerous extraction procedure and cultures could not generate any DNA-profile of the bone material good enough for use of identification. The bones were said to have been severely damaged in the crash.

"With determination to get scientific confirmation, Health Sciences Authority of Singapore agreed to do analysis for us. Again, after a lot of efforts they could not generate any positive DNA result.

"With this development we needed to close the investigation and conclude the process of releasing the final report of the investigation into the accident.

"The absence of the DNA result however does not have any negative effect on our investigations. It should be noted that the pathologists have already positively identified the bones while the laboratory analysis was for scientific confirmation,"he said. While conveying the condolences of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and the Minister of Aviation, Okutiji said the AIB had to hand over the remains to enable the families of the deceased render their customary obligations to their loved ones.