[Naijanet] 170 perish in plane crash (Airline releases names of 9 Nigerian s urvivors)
Fabiyi, Kolawole A (KAFA)
*Airline releases names of 9 Nigerian survivors
By Anayo Okoli, Sufuyan Ojeifo, Abuja with agency reports
Vanguard; 1 Feb., 2000
AN armada of small fishing boats and navy vessels scoured the ocean off Cote
D'Ivoire yesterday for survivors from a Kenya Airways crash, Sunday, in
which about 170 people, many of them Nigerian traders, are feared dead.
The airline has released the names of survivors of the crash, even as
relations of passengers besieged the Murtala Mohammed Airport seeking
information on their loved ones.
The survivors are:
* Samuel Aigbe
* Francisca Samba
* Anthony Ekweluchi
* Jim Pascal Daniels
* Emmanuel Madu
* Rafina Isaladin
* Hajj Kamara
* PhillipIbemeyinwa
* Clinton Osaheze
The name of the tenth survivor was not released because he was still in the
hospital and officials were not sure he would survive.
The Airbus 310, Flight KQ 431, from Abidjan to Lagos with 179 people on
board, crashed minutes after taking off from the international airport on
the outskirts of Abidjan.
The Federal Government reacting to the crash called for calm and said
President Olusegun Obasanjo and "all good people of Nigeria share this
moment of anxiety with the families of the passengers of this unfortunate
crash."
Rescuers and medical staff said at least nine and possibly 10 survivors had
been thrown clear in the night crash and taken ashore but the body count
rose rapidly after daybreak, with at least 49 corpses fished from the sea.
The crash was Kenya Airways' first and the first major airliner disaster of
the year.
"It broke up on impact. It broke into 100 pieces," medical worker, Alain
Thonar, who is attached to a private emergency service that works with the
airport, said.
"It's sad all those bodies floating everywhere," said Gerard Frere, owner of
a fishing boat that took part in the rescue.
Kenya Airways said 168 passengers, most of them Nigerians, and 11 crew were
on board.
"We have taken in nine injured people," said Dr. Moussa Soumahoro, a doctor
at the country's top private clinic. He said one of the nine survivors was
seriously hurt.
Boats rescued eight people from the water. An ambulance worker said a ninth
survivor had managed to swim ashore.
Thonar travelled by helicopter to the crash site, about 3,000 metres from
the shore. "We were seeing bodies floating," he said. The sea was calm but
there was no moon overnight.
Some witnesses reported hearing bangs as the plane went down. "There were
three loud explosions," Thonar said, quoting witnesses from the beach. Other
witnesses spoke of seeing lights at the surface before the plane went down.
The first to the scene were boats from a local sailing and sea-fishing club.
"There is wreckage and corpses scattered over a wide area," one source in
contact with the rescue boats said. Two helicopters with searchlights
criss-crossed the scene. Rescuers quoted one survivor, a Nigerian, as saying
that the plane had gone down three minutes after takeoff. Thonar said that
the plane sent the control tower a radio message, saying that it was going
down one minute after takeoff.
The coast of West Africa is prey to treacherous currents, which often sweep
bathers away. Rescue sources said kerosene on the corpses compounded the
problems of trying to pull in bodies. "We're having trouble pulling them in,
it's awful," one rescuer said from the scene overnight.
The nationality of the dead and of all but one of the survivors was not
immediately clear. "The identity of those on board is one of the most
difficult and sensitive matters we face after an incident like this," a
senior official in Abidjan for Dutch carrier, KLM said. KLM owns 26 per cent
of Kenya Airways.
Kenya Airways Technical Director, Steve Clarke told a news conference in
Nairobi the plane was bought new in October 1986 and was being flown by a
very experienced pilot.
Rescuers searched for more than three hours after the crash, before they
found the first sign of wreckage.
Hundreds of onlookers gathered on the beach. Several said they saw the plane
come down. Some said they had swum out to the wreckage, but that looked less
likely, given the distance of the wreckage from the shore.
"I heard the sound of takeoff and then the noise of the plane hitting the
water," Andre Desson, a resident living nearby said.
At the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, KLM officials said that the flight,
which arrived from Kenya's capital, Nairobi, had been due to land in Lagos
before Abidjan was forced to divert because of the harmattan.
Several dozen would be passengers for the flight waited at the MMA.
"This is terrible. I only thank God that this happened before I went on
board," Nigerian trader Ndubuisi Akujurubo said.
Several dozen anxious relatives gathered at the MMA yesterday to find out if
their loved ones were on board a Kenya Airways plane.
Many complained they were given no news by officials.
Felix Aigbe, whose younger brother Samuel was to have been a passenger on
the flight, said airport officials were being uncommunicative.
"We had to force this door to the office open. They say they cannot give us
the actual details now but I don't know if my younger brother is living or
dead," he said.
Airport security officials pleaded that they had not yet received the list
of passengers on board.
"Those who are dead are dead. We will take care of the living first," said
one official.
Kenya Airways officials in Dubai said some passengers on the airliner might
have been travelling between West Africa and Dubai in the United Arab
Emirates.
"If the information we have is correct, a number of passengers from Dubai to
Lagos were on that flight," one Kenya Airways official said.
The officials said passengers might also have been travelling from West
Africa with a connection to the Gulf, but they added they did not have
flight details or a passenger list.
The route via Nairobi is popular for businessmen, mainly Nigerians,
travelling from Lagos to Dubai, a regional trading hub.
The officials in Dubai said they had received telephone calls inquiring
about the stricken flight, but were directing callers to seek information
from help centres in Nairobi.
"The ambulance man on the beach near the airport said one passenger had
managed to swim ashore. The first survivor pulled out of the sea was a
Nigerian. The nationalities of other survivors and the dead were not
immediately clear.
*FG reacts
Meanwhile the Federal Government yesterday called for calm, saying that it
was doing everything possible at diplomatic and political levels to assist
relations of victims of the Kenyan Airways flight KQA 430, Airbus A 310
which crashed Sunday night in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, killing many Nigerians
on board.
In a two-page statement by the Ministry of Information, government expressed
sadness over the crash, stating that "President Olusegun Obasanjo and all
good people of Nigeria share this moment of anxiety with the families of the
passengers of this unfortunate crash."
According to the statement signed by the Assistant Director (Press), Mr.
Ayodeji Amusu a crisis information centre has been set up at the Murtala
Mohammed International Airport, Lagos where more details would be released
as soon as they are confirmed.
Aviation Minister, Dr. Olusegun Agagu on his part blamed the pilot of the
ill-fated Kenya Airways saying he (pilot) should have diverted to another
Nigerian Airport instead of flying to Abidjan.
Agagu in a statement in Lagos said the pilot went contrary to normal
International Aviation practice by flying to Abidjan to land.
The minister said the Federal Government had undertaken to cooperate with
the Ivoriens and Kenyan authorities in carrying out investigation into the
crash.
He said "our investigation has shown that the flight which was originally
bound for Lagos en route Abidjan from Nairobi had to be diverted at 15.09
hours (Nigerian time) due to very low visibility which was at 600 metres as
against the normal Lagos weather minimal of 800 metres. As at that time all
facilities and landing aids at MMA (Murtala Mohammed Airport) were fully
functional.
"When the decision to divert was taken the pilot of KQA 431 decided to go to
Abidjan to drop his Abidjan bound passengers instead of using other Nigerian
airports that had better weather as at that time.
"It is a normal international aviation practice that when such situations
occur, pilots decide to divert to airports of their choice where weather
would permit a safe landing.
"At the time of take-off (from Abidjan airport), the aircraft had 10 crew
members, 124 Lagos bound passengers and 45 Nairobi bound passengers.
"Since the accident was reported at 1.00 a.m., Nigerian time, contact had
been maintained with the Kenya Airways and other relevant authorities. In
addition, the Federal Government of Nigeria has set up a crisis information
centre at the MMA where more details will be released as soon as they are
confirmed," the minister further said.
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