NCAA investigates Kaduna plane crash

Abuja – The Minister of Aviation, Mrs Fidelia Njeze, has said that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has commenced investigations into the cause of the crash which took place in Kaduna on Tuesday.

Njeze made the announcement during a chat with newsmen after the last valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.

She said it was unfortunate that the plane crashed during a test-flight after a routine maintenance.

“ Right now the Accident Investigation Bureau and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are there carrying out investigations to ascertain the real cause and to know what actually went wrong on an airplane that went on routine maintenance.

“ We had an unfortunate incident with the foreign registered aircraft.  Unfortunately the aircraft went for maintenance at the Dornier Aviation hangar in Kaduna.

“After the routine maintenance, they went on a test flight, which is the usual exercise, they were on test flight when they discovered they had issues and that was five minutes after takeoff.

“They took off from the military runway in Kaduna and later requested for a landing permit.

“They were in touch with the Kaduna military control tower not the civilian one so they now signaled back to the control tower that they should be granted landing permit which they got but unfortunately they couldn’t control the situation and they crash-landed,’’ Njeze said.

NAN recalls that the pilot and the chief engineer of Dornier died during the crash. (NAN)