Villagers share their experience of Air Force plane crash in Ondo

Shocked locals in a coastal fishing village in southwestern Nigeria spoke on Tuesday about the loud sound they heard when a Nigerian Air Force plane crashed into swampy waters, killing all 25 people onboard.

This tragic incident marks one of Nigeria’s deadliest air disasters in recent years. The ATR-42 twin-engine turboprop went down in a swampy area close to a naval base in Ondo state, killing 25 people.

At first, officials reported a higher death toll of 32 but lowered it to 25 on Tuesday. Some civilians were among those on the plane, which was on a regular flight from Benin City to Lagos.

An investigation has started, and locals were among the first responders to the scene, helping with search and rescue efforts.

They shared their accounts of the crash with AFP. “We were sitting outside… and we saw the plane overhead making a loud sound. We were scared. It was already engulfed in flames. And we saw it crash,” said villager and volunteer rescuer Akinte Omoteremi Toluwalase.

“Immediately we rushed down there in boats. But by the time we got there, the plane had sunk into the swamp. We tried our best to see if we could rescue the people, to no avail. But we saw human body parts and scraps from the plane floating in the water,” he added.

Another villager, Owoyemi Oluwadamilare, mentioned he had seen boat accidents in the creeks before, “but I have never witnessed a plane crash before, … and of course I have seen it in movies.”

The airforce confirmed there were no survivors from the crash on Tuesday. Recovery operations are ongoing, but it is still not clear if any bodies have been retrieved.

“The rescue team have not rested, they have been going about it since yesterday without rest to ensure they can bring the people in the plane out,” said Felisia Michel, another villager.

The crash occurred near the town of Igbokoda, located in Ilaje, an oil-producing area in southern Nigeria. This incident is the deadliest crash in recent years in Africa’s most populous country.

In May 2021, Nigeria’s top army officer, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 other officers died when their plane crashed in bad weather while trying to land at an airport in northern Kaduna state.

In August 2015, seven people lost their lives when a military plane crashed into a house in northern Nigeria, killing everyone onboard.

The United States embassy in Nigeria offered condolences over the tragedy, stating, “we stand with the people of Nigeria and remain committed to our strong security partnership.”