BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

ABUJA – Forty-eight hours after the Nigeria Airforce F-7 fighter jet crashed in Kano during a training session, killing the pilot, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar, has expressed the confidence of the Airforce in the Chinese manufactured aircraft.

The expression came even as NAF named deceased pilot who died in the crash on March 22 as Group Captain Enny Bibinu Saleh.  The  pilot, who is from Taraba State, was born on October 2, 1966, and hailed from Bibinu in Donga LGA.

He enlisted into the Nigerian Air Force as a member of 37 Regular course on September 27, 1985, and was commissioned Pilot Officer.

Speaking when a delegation of Chinese National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation, CACTIC, led by its Vice President for International Trade, Mr. Sun Zhiwei, paid him a condolence visit over the crash, Air Marshal Umar said the Air Force’s confidence in the F-7Ni aircraft, because of its reliability, durability and maneuverability, remained unshaken, despite the unfortunate loss of one of its senior officers.

His words: “While we are grieved by the tragic accident and loss of the precious life of our officer, as a military organisation, we have continued with the exercise in Kano and will, thereafter, move to Ilorin, Kwara State, for the second phase.”