A chartered aircraft belonging to Associated Aviation Ltd., which had 20 persons and the remains of the late Gov. Segun Agagu of Ondo State on board, crashed on Thursday near the international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport(MMA).
The accident, involving the aircraft with registration mark 5NBJY, occurred at about 9.00a.m., leaving 15 passengers dead and five others rescued.
Mr Yakubu Dati, General Manager, Corporate Communications, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) confirmed the figures of the dead and survivors in the accident.
The crash happened 16 months after that of an MD 83 aircraft belonging to Dana Airline occurred in Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos, claiming 159 lives on June 3, 2012.
The survivors of the Associated Airline crash were taken to the Nigerian Air Force Hospital for treatment, while the dead were also taken to its morgue.
Dr Wale Ahmed , the Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, said that the aircraft was transporting the casket containing Agagu’s corpse from Lagos to Akure, ahead of his burial slated for the weekend.
He said that the Lagos State Government would perform autopsy on those that died in the crash before releasing their remains to their families.
The crash happened within Sahara Group tank farm, one of the companies supplying aviation fuel to airlines.
The tank farm is situated some 200 metres away from the perimeter fence of the international wing of the MMA, and it happened a few minutes after take-off
The aircraft broke into two with its cockpit compartment seriously burnt, while the remaining part that included the luggage compartment, was slightly burnt.
However , the casket containing the remains of Agagu, kept in the luggage compartment, was intact as it was not burnt when it was finally removed from the wreckage.
The casket was conveyed in a NAF Ambulance with registration no AF 054 -Eo1 to the nearby NAF hospital, a few hours after the accident.
The Associated Aviation counter at the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 terminal was empty and deserted when a reporter visited the place.
All relevant security and emergency agencies comprising Lagos State Emergency Management Agency(LASEMA), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC), members of the Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps, Red Cross and Lagos State Fire Services, were present at the crash site.
Others include the Nigerian Air Force personnel and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).
On ground to supervise the operations were Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu , General Manager Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA); Mr Rasaq Fadipe, Director, Lagos State Fire Service and Mr Waheed Salau , the head, Airport Police Command.
Fadipe said that his office received a distress call around 9.30a.m. and he had to mobilise his men and equipment to the site and engaged in rescue and search operations
“We took three fire fighting trucks,each with 10,000 litres of water, which my men used to extinguish the fire that affected the cockpit compartment of the aircraft,” he said.
Our correspondent saw some officials of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) retrieving personal belongings and effects of the passengers from the aircraft into their waiting vehicle for identification.
Some of the retrieved belongings were : a small camera, laptop bags, one ipad, a travelling bag containing personal effect, a torchlight , a walkie talkie, a wallet and the case of a reading glass.
The crash led to a heavy human and vehicular traffic along the roads leading to the airport.
Many people wanted to catch glimpses of the incident and used their camera phones to snap pictures of the site.
However, the security agents had to cordon off the area to be able to dismantle the luggage compartment and bring out the casket.
