Crash: 137 bodies recovered

Posted by admin Headlines Monday, June 4th, 2012

June 5, 2012 by Sesan Olufowobi, Sam Awoyinfa and Maureen Azuh 4 Comments

Search and rescue operation at the site of Dana’s Boieng MD–83 plane crash at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos ... on Monday

ONE hundred and thirty seven bodies have so far been recovered from the site of the crashed Dana Boeing MD-83 plane at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos, officials of the agency supervising the search operation announced on Monday.

The Abuja-Lagos Flight Number 5N-RAM, operated by Dana Airlines, crashed into houses in the densely populated residential area of Ishaga about 3.45pm on Sunday, killing all 153 persons on board.

The Director, Search and Rescue operation in the National Emergency Management Agency, Air Commodore Alexander Bankole, announced at the close of operation at 7.00pm on Monday that the search for more bodies would continue on Tuesday (today).

Bankole said the search would continue till officials were satisfied that there were no more bodies to be recovered from the site.

Also on Monday, President Goodluck Jonathan led other top officials of his government to the site for an on-the-spot assessment and to condole with the relations of the victims. The President shed tears at the site.

Jonathan who arrived at the scene about 1.37pm promised that a “thorough investigation would be conducted into the incident.”

“Aviation business is an international business and as a nation, we have been working very hard to improve the aviation condition in the country. Repairs are going on at our airports and the government is fully committed to this. We will thoroughly investigate the crash; the technical people will do their job at the end of the day we make sure that justice is done,” he said.

The two black boxes which could lead to the unravelling of the cause of the crash were also recovered on Monday.

The spokesperson of one of the aviation regulatory bodies, Accident Investigation Bureau, Mr. Tunji Oketunji told our correspondent at the site of the crash on Monday that both the Flight Data recorder and Cockpit Voice recorder had been recovered.

“We have recovered the two black boxes, the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder. This will go a long way in assisting us in unraveling what really happened before the plane crashed,” Oketunji said.The Controller-General of the Federal Fire Service, Mr. Olusegun Okebiorun, had earlier complained that it was difficult to give a precise number of bodies recovered as the figure continued to rise.

He said, “As you can see, we just recover another body; if I give a figure now, it can change in the next few minutes. It is best that you wait for us to finish our rescue operation.

“I can tell you that all the people inside the place died; but we did not know how many were in the houses before the crash.

“A good number of the bodies that were brought out had been identified and tagged. Some of them were identified by residents, while majority were identified by property on their bodies. We also recovered some property, including identity cards. AIG John Ahmadu (retd.) ID card was among those that were recovered.”

He said the few who were burnt beyond recognition would pose some challenges and that it might require some scientific process to identify them.

Okebiorun added that the families of the victims had been advised to go to the state university teaching hospital to claim the corpses of their members.

The fire service boss confirmed the recovery of the plane’s black box and flight recorder saying, “we gave them to civil aviation authorities; they will know how to use them better.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Lagos State Emergency Management Authority, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, said efforts would be intensified today to get more bodies from the plane and the houses affected in the crash.

Oke-Osanyintolu said that five people were also injured in the crash. He explained that four of them had been treated and discharged while one was still in the hospital.

The LASEMA boss added that the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, had directed that people who were displaced as a result of the crash be rehabilitated at the state relief camp in Agbowa.

He said that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing would be conducted on charred corpses for proper identification.

At the crash site on Monday, security operatives, emergency management officials and men of the federal and state fire services were seen searching through debris of the crashed plane.

While at the scene, our correspondents observed the recovery of eight bodies, packaged inside body bags and taken away to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in ambulances.

Unlike on Sunday, armed security agents kept the crowd at bay. Officials had complained on Sunday that the crowd of sympathisers who besieged the scene had hampered their operation.

Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Nkeruka Onyeseocha, who came with President Jonathan, urged Nigerians to join hands and use the incident to forge ahead.

She said, “This is a very difficult time for us in the country. We had a tragedy in Bauchi yesterday (Sunday) and also yesterday the Dana incident occurred. Our heart bleeds for our children and people that lost their lives.

“We are going to make sure investigation is conducted and sooner or later, the reason for the crash will be known. In fact, the House will conduct its own investigation. We have to join hands together to make sure that this will never happen again.”

Onyeseocha’s counterpart in the Senate, Hope Uzodinma, described the Dana crash as a national tragedy that must not happen again.

“We have yet to recover from the shock of yesterday event. It is one of the biggest tragedies to happen to Nigeria in recent times. Government and people of Nigeria must come together to be strong; government must look into the incident and make sure it does not repeat itself,” he said.-

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