A Nigerian Air Force aircraft, Dornier-228, on Saturday crashed into a house at Ribadu Military, Kaduna, killing all passengers on board, the Air Force has confirmed.
In a statement issued by Air Force spokesperson, Dele Alonge, an Air Commodore, the crash occurred around 6:45am minutes after it had taken off from the Kaduna Military Airfield on its way to Abuja.
“Bodies of the passengers have been recovered and fire fighters are already at the crash site to curtail fire from spreading to other buildings within the vicinity,” the statement read, adding that the Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, an Air Marshall, had aborted his trip to Port Harcourt in order to visit the scene of the crash.
Among the crew was the Air Officer Commanding Training Command, Alikali Mamu, an Air Vice Marshall. An investigation, according to Alonge, has been launched to determine the cause of the crash.
Meanwhile, we can authoritatively report that the crash happened in the officers’ quarters of the cantonment.
According to a soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the incident happened close to the Military Police Guardroom near the main entrance to the barracks.
“I was heading to the Mammy Market very early this morning when I heard the sound of the crash,” the soldier said, adding that there was nobody in the house where the plane fell on it.