𝗢𝗻𝗱𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵: 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵

The traditional ruler of Igbokoda, Oba Afolabi Odidiomo, has commended the pilot of the Nigerian Air Force aircraft that crashed in the Ondo community, saying his actions spared the town from a greater disaster.
 

The monarch in an interview with journalists on Wednesday said the crash, which claimed the lives of all 25 people on board, would have caused more devastation if the aircraft had fallen within the town.
The NAF ATR-42 aircraft, with registration number NAF 931, crashed in the Igbokoda area of Ondo State on Monday, October 5, while on a routine mission from Benin to Lagos. The Nigerian Air Force later confirmed that five crew members and 20 passengers were on board and that there were no survivors.
The aircraft went down in a swampy area near the Naval Base in Igbokoda after air traffic controllers lost contact with it at about 9:13am. Search and rescue operations were subsequently activated, while efforts to recover the victims and wreckage continued in the difficult terrain.
President Bola Tinubu declared three days of national mourning over the deaths and ordered a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Speaking while reflecting on the crash and the ongoing recovery efforts, Odidiomo said the community had been deeply disturbed by the incident.
“We may have been hearing about crashes, but we've never had the first-hand experience as we're having today. For the past three days, all of us have been so disturbed, but there's only one thing that I know unifies the whole of us here. We celebrate the pilot extremely for his sacrifice of his own life and the lives of those on the plane and sparing us in this town, because if the plane had fallen in this town or anywhere, the effect would have been more than this,” he said.
The monarch, however, said the community remained pained by the loss of lives within its territory.
“But nevertheless, we are pained that lives have to be lost in this manner within our own territory. We are not happy about this,” he said.
Odidiomo said residents immediately mobilised after witnessing the aircraft go down, with some people going to the area to establish what had happened.
“It happens because we are a part of our territory and the minute we saw the plane go down, we sent people there to determine what had happened, whether it actually fell in there or not,” he said.
He said two fishermen who were in the area escaped unhurt and helped residents locate the crash site.
“And one or two persons who were fishing there were luckily not touched, they were the ones who directed people to the exact location,” he said.
According to the monarch, residents initially went to the site with tools, hoping that some of the victims might still be alive and could be rescued.
“And when people were going, people went with axe and whatever that in case people are still alive, that they can cut the plane and still bring them out,” he said.
He said the residents, however, found only remnants of the aircraft when they reached the location.
“But unfortunately, when they got there, they only saw remnants of the plane and they know that the thing must have sank into that place,” he said.
Odidiomo said the community was the first to reach the site and quickly directed security agencies to the location.
“So we were the first and it doesn't take us time to tell the security agents where the place is,” he said.
He explained that accessing the crash site had been difficult because the area was not navigable, requiring the community to create a route to it.
“I am not comfortable, but I'm not blaming anybody for it. To have access into that area has been challenging, challenging in the sense that it is not an area that is navigable,” he said.
“We have to create a way to go there,” he added.
The monarch said an excavator had since created access to the area, adding that the community was prepared to explore other means of recovering what remained of the aircraft.
“Now that the Afibian excavator has been able to create paths to that place, we are also waiting to see what it can do. If it cannot do anything and it can locate whatever is left of the plane, I can assure you that we'll bring it out,” he said.
He said the community had begun discussing alternative methods of retrieving the wreckage, including the use of a large locally made boat and chains.
“We have started meeting, discussing on possibility of how to bring it out and it might not be the orthodox way,” he said.
“But then there's a way we could bring a very big locally made boat with chains around it and people will go down to tie it around whatever is there, so the big boats can actually with its weight pull it out.”
Odidiomo said the difficult recovery conditions remained a major concern, particularly because of the possibility that bodies were in the surrounding water.