By Ismail Auwal
Survivors of a horrific plane crash involving editors of THISDAY Newspapers, 20 years ago in Maiduguri, have recounted their nightmarish experiences on an ill-fated chartered flight.
On the plane were the paper’s Editors, the Divisional Directors, the General Managers and the operational Managers flying from Jos, north-central Nigeria, to Borno State capital, Maiduguri north-eastern Nigeria.
Among them were: Olusegun Adeniyi, former media aide to late president Umaru Musa Yar’adua, Mallam Yakubu Musa, currently with the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC), Mr Victor Ifijeh, the Managing Director of the Nation Newspapers, and several others.
The crash, as later explained by the captain of the flight, was as a result of wrong weather report given by the Maiduguri’s control tower airport’s operators.
According to Adeniyi ,“The flight was smooth until about 80 minutes into the journey when we noticed there was a problem with the way the engineer and the hostess were going back and forth to the cockpit to converse with the pilot. By this time, however, only Obi, Bello and myself could sense what was going on because our seats were close to the cockpit and we were not asleep.”
He added that, “All of a sudden, the aircraft began a sharp ascent. Then we began to descend again. Not long after, the pilot lost control of the aircraft lost control in a turbulence of wind and at that point, all one could hear were ‘Jesus’, ‘Jehovah’ as everyone began to call upon the name of their God.”
In the same vein, Musa, who also recalled his experience described it as “traumatic” in an interview with SAHELIAN TIMES
“I was told that my mum had already mourned my demise when she first heard in the morning, on BBC, that the plane taking us to Maiduguri crashed some few kilometers away from the airport, and no was sure whether there was a survivor or not. BBC could only confirm seeing a rescue team going to the location of the accident.”
“ When I arrived Kano the following day, well-wishers thronged our family house to felicitate with us. I remember how most of them predicted that I was going to have many children,” he said.
On this anniversary, the survivors dedicated their survival to God and thanked everyone that prayed for them.
