Tinubu Orders Probe, Three-Day Mourning After Air Force Plane Crashes in Ondo
President Bola Tinubu has ordered an investigation into the crash of a Nigerian Air Force aircraft in Ondo State and declared three days of national mourning for personnel who died in the accident.
The ATR-42 aircraft crashed near the Naval Base in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area, on Monday while flying from Benin City to Lagos on what the Air Force described as a routine mission.
Officials said 25 passengers and seven crew members were aboard the aircraft.
The Presidency said flags would be flown at half-mast across the country during the mourning period. It also said Tinubu had directed the Nigerian Air Force to conduct a thorough investigation to establish what caused the crash and identify measures needed to prevent a recurrence.
Contact lost before crash
Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft, identified by tail number NGR 931, at about 9:13 a.m.
Attempts to reach the aircraft by radio were unsuccessful before information emerged that it had crashed close to the naval base in Igbokoda.
The Nigerian Air Force subsequently confirmed that one of its ATR-42 aircraft had crashed and said search-and-rescue operations were activated in coordination with emergency agencies and other authorities.
Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa later said responders searching the crash site had not found a survivor at the time of his statement.
The Presidency subsequently referred to personnel who died in the crash and said their names would be released after their families had been contacted.
Cause remains unknown
No official finding has yet established why the aircraft went down.
Defence Minister Christopher Musa has ordered what his office described as a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash, including whether aviation-safety measures need to be strengthened across military operations.
The investigation now carries the central accountability question raised by the disaster: what happened between the aircraft’s departure from Benin and the loss of contact at 9:13 a.m., and could any operational, technical or safety failure have been prevented?
Those questions cannot yet be answered from the evidence released publicly.
The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau has said military-aircraft crashes fall outside its normal statutory mandate unless it is formally invited by the military to participate.
That places primary responsibility for establishing the cause, preserving the evidence and accounting publicly for what went wrong with the military investigation ordered after the crash.
For the families of personnel confirmed dead, the consequences are already irreversible.
For the Nigerian Air Force, the next test is whether the investigation produces a clear account of the crash — and whether any lessons identified translate into measures capable of preventing another one.
