ABUJA,
Nigeria
A small Nigerian air force passenger plane crashed just outside Abuja airport after reporting engine failure on Sunday, killing all seven people on board, the air force said.
The plane, a Beechcraft
King Air 350i, was on its way to the city of Minna, 110 kilometres (68 miles)
northwest of the capital, air force spokesman Ibikunle Daramole said in a
statement.
The aircraft “crashed
while returning to the Abuja Airport after reporting engine failure”, said
Daramole. “First responders are at the scene. Sadly, all seven personnel on
board died in the crash.”
The chief of the air
force has ordered an investigation into the accident, Daramole said.
President Muhammadu
Buhari in a statement sent his condolences to the air force and families of the
victims, saying he was “deeply saddened by the fatal crash”.
In scrubland just
outside the airport perimeter, dozens of military and airport officials picked
through the charred remnants of the fuselage as fire engines and ambulances
stood by.
The smell of burning
chemicals lingered in the air but no fire or smoke were visible. Onlookers
watched the rescue efforts from behind a cordon.
“As he (the plane’s
pilot) was going down, he struggled to go back to the airport, at the end he
just crashed,” said Alaba Lawal, who said she witnessed the accident.
“I just saw the whole
thing explode, fire and smoke together ... When I got there I saw dead bodies
on the ground.”
The air force did not
provide the identities of those killed in the crash.
The Beechcraft King Air
350i is a twin-propeller aircraft made by Textron Aviation, a unit of the
U.S.-based Textron Inc conglomerate. The model was first released around 2009.
The company said in a
statement that it had been notified of the accident, which it said is being
investigated by Nigeria’s Aircraft Investigation Bureau and the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board.
“As a party to the
investigation, the company is prohibited by NTSB regulation from divulging any
information about the accident or investigation,” the company said.
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