50 LOYOLA JESUIT COLLEGE STUDENTS DIE IN NIGERIAN PLANE CRASH

50 students of the famous Loyola Jesuit College were killed in the latest air disaster in Nigeria last Saturday.They were on the ill-fated Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 Flight 1145 from Abuja that crashed in Port Harcourt at exactly 2.08 p.m., yesterday, killing 103 passengers (including the crew)on the spot and four others have also died in the hospital where the wounded survivors were rushed to.The 50 students of Loyola Jesuit College, Karu,Abuja were returning home for the Christmas holidays.

Chippla Vandu was the first Nigerian to blog the breaking news yesterday before I posted the bad news of the second catastrophic air disaster in Nigeria this year within 50 days. The bereaved families of the 117 people who lost their lives in the Bellview plane crash on October 22 are still mourning when the horrible news of the latest air crash was reported on the CNN and other foreign news agencies before the Nigerian news media could report it.

It is horrifying and terrifying to bear the nightmares of these calamities and only the bereaved families would be able to tell others the trauma of the great loss of their beloved ones. And only God who knows the depth of their awesome loss can comfort them.

I have warned of the grave consequences of the incompetence and inefficiency of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) under the office of the Aviation minister, Prof. Babalola Borishade.

The ill-fated Sosoliso Airlines(Flight 1145)DC-9-32 aircraft with registration number 5N-BFD was manufactured in 1973. So it is a 32-year-old "tokunbo" aircraft.

I am not going to say more than what I have already posted onChippla's Weblog. I will only quote the similar views of a competent professional in the aviation sector, Capt. Tito Omaghomi, former Chairman of Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI),who flew for the presidential fleet and liquidated Nigeria Airways for 35 years.

The Vanguard reported that Captain Tito Omaghomi:

re-echoed his recent comments in a Vanguard interview, saying planes would continue to drop off the sky as long as the rot in the aviation industry remained uncleared.

“Well, go back to my interview; I told you more will be happening. The rot in the system is manifesting now.I told you it will happen, this is only the beginning. May the souls of the dead rest in perfect peace.Amen!”, he said.

When on December 2, an experienced pilot,Captain Tito Omaghomi described the sector as being in disarray, many so-called stakeholders dismissed his observations, describing him as doomsday prophet.But it took only a couple of days after, for the plane crash at Port Harcourt.Omaghomi, while speaking with Vanguard editors, reviewed the aviation sector and warned that unless a radical overhaul was carried out, the airspace, would continue to witness disasters.

He said that the sector constituted a threat to lives of travellers and a dent on the image of Nigeria, because the sector has suffered the infiltration of non-professionals.A situation where unqualified people occupy sensitive positions and operate the sector, based on party patronage, standards are therefore thrown to the winds.Omaghomi raised fresh alarm that due to poverty afflicting most pilots “they now fly aircraft even though they are not sure of its airworthiness”.

He added that the frightening aspect of your flight was that most pilots do not go for regular training and checks.The reason being that “training practice is no more”. On inspection of airplane, he said, “we have a very sad thing happening in respect of airplane inspection. Based or what he described as dangerous airspace, he said,“when I go to the airport these days to board a flight I take my time to find out who the pilot is. If I am not sure of the competence of the pilot, I take my bag and go back to my house”. That is a message for the authorities. But can the present operators of the sector turn the situation around make the airspace safe and restore public confidence?

Nigerian airports are like cartoons when an Air France passenger jet crashed into a herd of cows on the runway at Port Harcourt International Airport. And some cows were recently shot dead on the runway of another Nigerian airport. There are so many potholes on the runways of most of the airports in Nigeria.

My final verdict is that the incompetent Aviation minister, Prof. Babalola Borishade SHOULD BE SACKED immediately.