It's Raining Planes!

When H.E. the Sultan of Sokoto and Spiritual Leader of Nigeria’s Umar, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido was specially thanked for attending the Federal Education Forum at Abuja by President Obasanjo, it never occurred to him that a greater sacrifice than supporting the country’s literacy would be required of him; a sacrifice he belatedly discovered would be too dear to recover. As the twin engines erupted in blood-red flames 2 minutes after going airborne, the final moments must have been scarcely sufficient for Muhammadu to clutch at his incarnadined prayer beads and breathe a desperate “Allah!” before the ADC Boeing 737 succumbed to gravity, hurtling down to the fiery, fatal fate suffered by four other Nigerian planes in the space of one year.

The last time Nigeria sustained such consecutive tragedy was 1996, and back then, they were blamed on the dearth or deplorable state of aviation facilities and equipment at the airports. Typical to the Nigerian situation, however, the relative calm in the skies afterwards induced characteristic slothfulness in effecting reforms, a reprehensible exhibition of complacency that was sternly penalised with the Bellview Boeing crash of October 22, 2005 that claimed all 117 aboard. Such a visceral kick in the stomach prompted the aviation sector to react with knee-jerk speed. There were equipment updates, round-the-clock terminal radar services installed at the airports, and comprehensive audits of landing aircraft instruments to include Distance Measuring Equipments, Very High Omni-Directional Radio Range transmitters and countless other safety paraphernalia. The result? Four more planes have dropped out of ‘heaven’, including a private jet and a military Dornier 228, cutting short in their cursed descent no less than 220 lives, many of whom constituted the crème of Nigeria’s most illustrious citizens. The opening paragraph relates the very latest in this murderous spate of air mishaps that occurred on Sunday, October 22, ‘06, and brings us no closer to resolving the resounding, perturbing query: why?

The government stance has veered from communication lapse, equipment malfunction to pilot error. Meanwhile, conclusive reports on delegated investigations are yet to be issued, and the frankly mysterious circumstances surrounding certain instances have left observers nonplussed. To illustrate, the spatial dispersion of debris and eye-witness accounts suggest the Bellview and ADC planes may have sustained pre-crash explosions, the sources of which are yet indeterminate. In all 5 crash cases investigated, the black boxes are either still missing or undergoing sound-lab analysis. The Dornier dossier is even more enshrouded in mystique, with the military being especially sensitive to media scrutiny, considering its chequered, power-grabbing past and the fact that the crash victims were top army generals. Compound this with the rumour that several important political dignitaries were cautioned via phone not to board the Bellview flight by anonymous secret service details, and we have enough resource to pen a Frederick Forsyth bestseller.

One thing is certain: flying is fast losing its shimmering safety record in Nigeria, and politicians are taking due note. This Wednesday, when presidential hopeful, Rtd. General Ibrahim Babangida, journeyed to claim his presidential ticket at Abuja, he took the bus.