Not yet relief for Sosoliso crash victims’ relations, six years on

Posted by admin Aviation, Headlines Monday, July 30th, 2012

SIX and a half years after a Sosoliso Airlines Fight 1145 from Abuja to Port Harcourt crashed on landing, killing 107 passengers, including pupils of Loyola Jesuit College, relations of victims are still in pains.

Such still-grieving relations include Prof Charles Ofoegbu, the founding Project Director/Vice Chancellor, Veritas University and one-time Special Adviser to the Governor of Abia State. He lost his wife, Beatrice Nkem, in the crash.

Whatever numbing effect time might have had on their old wounds were reopened with the recent Dana Air Crash in Lagos, which killed more than 150 people. This brought back their pains, and the many unanswered questions about that tragedy in Port Hacourt.

According to Prof Ofoegbu: “ I can appreciate the pains of the families of victims of the Dana air crash as the Sosoliso plane crash affected me seriously.

I lost my wife and life has never been the same for me. It is a terrible experience when you see a loved one-minute and in the next one hour you hear that that person is involved in a plane crash and you cannot even identify the body.

“I was at the airport, kissed her goodbye on her trip to Port Harcourt and went back to my house in Abuja, only to see on CNN that the plane had crashed. And that was it. She was gone.

“Several options came to my mind including suicide, but I am grateful to my friends who encouraged me. It was that painful.

“The last born of my late wife was only two years old then, and thought the casket was a big birthday cake.

“She asked me during the burial when the cake would be cut, not realizing it was her mother being laid to rest. Her death still remains the most painful experience in my life.”

Added to Ofoegbu and relations’ grief is also anger and despair that so many years after, there has not been any report as to what happened to Sosoliso Airlines Fight 1145 or have they received any compensation.

He told The Guardian there had been too many air crashes in the country, including those involving military and police aircraft.

“Let us ask ourselves: must so many planes crash in so short a time?

Were things done properly before the aircraft were flown?

“Using Sosoliso as a case study, should there have been any airline registered as Sosoliso? What experience did those behind it have in the aviation industry?

“That plane should not have been in the air because it was not well-serviced and the airport it was flying to was not well-equipped for emergency services.

“Those children should not have lost their lives if things were done the way they should be, if the emergency response team had responded timely.

“Many of the victims died very painfully because the emergency response equipment in Port Harcourt airport was about zero, and I guess it is still zero today.”

He also took strong exception to the fact that there is yet no official report of the accident, just as there had been none of the Bellview air crash, a year before.

“Do you have to go to heaven to produce report on an accident to say what caused it? You have the black box, what else do you need? Air crash reports should not take more than six months. If it is pilot or human error it is stated.”

He also wondered whether the airline had insurance? Or even airworthiness certificate?

“Who allowed the plane to fly? At the end of the day, where is justice for the families of the victims? Some of those victims had parents, some of them died out of the pains of losing their little kid.

“Widows have seen hell because of the plane crash and the way they were treated.

“They have received the worst form of injustice.

“The point must be made that nobody wants to trade the lives of these victims for money. And I cannot trade the life of my late wife for N50 million. While I can struggle and survive, there are people who have died because that money had not been paid.

“If it had been given to them, their children could have continued their education.

“You may be surprised to know that the kids of some people that died have ended up in the village maltreated and used as child slaves, and the man that operated this airline, is walking around a free man and alleged to be proposing to set up another airline.

“We never got any compensation because competition is paid out of the insurance made, and the company was not viable enough.

“We wrote letters to them, and after a period of time the letters were returned.

Time will take care of it but the souls of the people that died will continue to haunt this country, and those that denied them justice.

Lamenting the shoddy treatment relations of victims of the Sosoliso air crash have received at the hands of the Ministry of Aviation and the Justice Ministry, Ofoegbu said they wrote letters, sought appointment with top officials, but nothing happened.

“They promised to get back to me for an appointment, but never did.

“I met with the Attorney General of the Federation, and he promised to ensure that something was being done to get justice for the families of the victims.

But it is like any other government business.

“The Attorney General of the Federation owes God the duty to apologize to the families of the victims for not taking action on this matter.”

He said relations of victims of the Sosoliso plane crash were happy there is an ongoing probe of the Dana air crash.

“The question is: what will come out of it?. I saw the National Assembly probe on television, the Aviation Minister wearing black. That was nothing more than a charade!”

He said the relations of victims did not go to court because the Ministry of Justice should have taken necessary action, found out why that plane crashed, and if it was because of negligence, held people accountable.

“In some countries, they will prefer to put everything on hold and investigate the matter. Why would the issue of a plane crash that killed about 153 people be swept aside, until another one happened?

“The aviation sector should be totally re-engineered. Square pegs should be put in square hole, round pegs in round holes. Even if it is only one airline that is operating in Nigeria, let it be sound and operating under internationally acceptable standard. Some of these airlines are just deathtraps in the air. The industry should be completely reengineered. The right people should be put as ministers of aviation, because it is an industry-oriented ministry and supposed to be a truly professional ministry.

“Also we should learn to begin to give justice, they should bring in proper accident investigators. We should not be ashamed to out-source it if we don’t have the capacity.

We also need to put in place a viable response emergency management team in the aviation industry. If you go to our airport you will only see three-firefighting equipment parked there.

Of the three, only one may be functional with half filled tank of water. So when there is a fire, how do they get to quench it? That was what happened in the case of Sosoliso air crash. There was no water to fight the fire.”

via Guardianwp_posts