News

May 23, 2025

Two injured as training aircraft crash-lands in Ilorin

Two injured as training aircraft crash-lands in Ilorin

This image released by the US Navy shows containment and absorbent booms surroundng a Boeing 737 aircraft in the St. Johns River after the aircraft slid off the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida on May 3, 2019. – The plane carrying 143 people including crew from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba slammed into shallow water next to a naval air station in Jacksonville after a hard landing that saw the plane bounce and swerve down the runway, passengers said. No fatalities or critical injuries were reported. (Photo / AFP) /

By Dickson Omobola

Two people sustained serious injuries when a training aircraft crash-landed at the Ilorin International Airport on Thursday.

Director of Public Affairs and Family Assistance, NSIB, Mrs Bimbo Oladeji, who disclosed this in a statement, said the incident occurred at 17:28 local time on May 23, 2025, during a simulated instrument approach on Runway 05 at Ilorin International Airport.

Oladeji said the aircraft veered off the runway and came to a stop on the grass verge, leaving the two occupants on board injured.

She stated: “Both sustained serious injuries and were swiftly evacuated to a medical facility, coordinated by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA.

“In response, the NSIB Go-Team is currently preparing to depart from Abuja to Ilorin to conduct on-site investigations. The team will secure the site, collect physical evidence, interview witnesses, and retrieve operational data to establish the cause and contributing factors of the incident.”

Quoting the Director General of the NSIB, Captain Alex Badeh Jr., she said “Our thoughts are with the injured, and we commend the swift medical and emergency response. Now, our focus is on understanding exactly what went wrong. Every investigation is an opportunity to improve safety. We are deploying our team to Ilorin to ensure that no detail is overlooked.”

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