ABUJA (NIGERIA) – A small Nigerian air force passenger plane crashed just outside Abuja airport after reporting failure of engine on Sunday. The air force said that it killed all seven people on board.
The plane, a Beechcraft King Air 350i, was en route to the city of Minna, 110 kilometres (68 miles) northwest of the capital, said air force spokesman Ibikunle Daramole in a statement.
The aircraft “crashed while returning to the Abuja Airport after reporting engine failure”, said Daramole.
“First responders are at the scene. Sadly, all seven personnel on board died in the crash.”
Daramole said the chief of the air force has ordered an inquiry into the accident.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement expressed his condolences to the air force and families of the victims. He said he was “deeply saddened by the fatal crash”.
Dozens of military and airport officials were seen going through the charred remains of the fuselage as fire engines and ambulances stood by.
Alaba Lawal, who said she witnessed the accident, said, “As he (the plane’s pilot) was going down, he struggled to go back to the airport, at the end he just crashed.”
“I just saw the whole thing explode, fire and smoke together … When I got there I saw dead bodies on the ground.”
The air force did not reveal the identities of those who died in the crash.
The Beechcraft King Air 350i is a twin-propeller aircraft manufactured by Textron Aviation, a unit of the US-based Textron Inc conglomerate. The model was first launched around 2009.
The company said in a statement that it had been intimated about the accident, which it said is being looked into by Nigeria’s Aircraft Investigation Bureau and the US National Transportation Safety Board.
“As a party to the investigation, the company is prohibited by NTSB regulation from divulging any information about the accident or investigation,” the company said.