Crash Pictures: Grief Envelopes Port-Harcourt
- Post 13 December 2005
- Last Updated on 23 April 2008
- By News Agencies
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Monica Baa who lost her 13-year-old daughter in the Sosoliso crash cries in
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An unidentified woman holds up the picture of her husband who died in the Sosoliso crash in
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Ify Ilabor, holds up the picture of her three children who died in the Sosoliso plane crash in
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An unidentified woman who lost her husband in the Sosoliso plane crash cries in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005. A memorial service was held Tuesday at the airport for the victims and grieving families who lost their relatives in Saturday's crash of a Nigerian airliner ferrying schoolchildren home for the holidays. All but three of the 110 people on board died when the Sosoliso Airlines' McDonnell Douglas DC-9 slammed into the ground on approach to the southern oil-industry center of Port Harcourt. (AP Photo/George Osodi)
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Ify Ilabor, center left, who lost her three children is consoled by relatives as she walks away from the wreckage of the Sosoliso plane crash in
Sosoliso Airline has released the manifest of the passengers and crew members on board its ill-fated flight that claimed 107 lives in
SOSOLISO AIRLINE-FLIGHT 1145
OFFICIAL MANIFEST
S/N- NAMES -TITLE- SEX
1. ABBA K. MASTER MALE
2. ADAKA K. MASTER CHILD 3. ADEBOLU O. MASTER MALE
4. ADEWOGA V. MISS FEMALE
5. ADEYEMI B. MASTER MALE
6. ADILORLY D. MASTER MALE
7. AIKONBARE O. MISS FEMALE
8. AKPAN O.
9. AKWIWU A. MR MALE
10. ALIGBA P.
11. AMACHREE O. MASTER MALE
12. AMANZE E. MISS FEMALE
13. ASARA A.P. MR MALE
14. AWAYI C. MASTER MALE
15.
16. BAA V. MASTER MALE
17. BABA R.Z. MISS FEMALE
18.
19 BANIGO E.S. MR MALE
20. BUNMI AMUSAN
21. CHIGBO C. MASTER MALE
22. CHUKWUNENYE MR MALE
23. COOKEYGAM K. MR MALE
24. DANIEL KALU MASTER MALE
25. EDETH S.
26.
27. EHIMOHA J. MR MALE
28. EJIKEME O. MR MALE
29. EKEFRE U.O. MR MALE
30. EKERE A.N. MR MALE
31. EKERUWA A. MASTER MALE
32. ELLAH I.A MISS FEMALE
33. EMESIOBI C. MR MALE
34. ENTE C. MR MALE
35. EZE GODWIN MR MALE
36. EZERIBE A. MR MALE
37. GBEMUDU S. MISS FEMALE
38.
39. IBIAM M. MASTER MALE
40. IDABOR A. MASTER MALE
41. ILABOR B. MISS FEMALE
42. ILABOR C. MISS FEMALE
43. ILABOR M. MASTER MALE
44.
45. ILOBI N.
46. IROEHAMA S. MISS FEMALE
47. KAMANU C. MASTER MALE
48. KEMARA H.
49. LAMY
50.
51 .MANILLA A.
52. MBA C. MR MALE
53.
54. MOGBA M. MR MALE
55. MONAGO A. MASTER MALE
56. Njoku.l. Miss Female
57.
58. Nnebedum C. Master MALE
59. Ntemuse E.K. Miss Female
60. Nwadei V. Miss Female
61 Nwafor O. Mr. MALE
62. Nweze C. Miss Female
63. Nwigwe C. Master MALE
64. Nwoko S. Miss Female
65. Nzelu C. Master MALE
66. Nzenwa A. Mrs. Female
67. Obi A.N. Mr. MALE
68 . Ochulo M. Mrs. Female
69. Odukoya B. Mrs. Female
70. Ofoegbu B. Mrs. Female
71. Ofor M. Mr. MALE
72. Ogundipe O. Mr MALE
73. Ojebode S. Mr MALE
74. Okafor C.O. Master MALE
75.
76 . Okereke O. Miss Female
77. Okolie C. Mr MALE
78. Okoro U.M. Mr MALE
79. Okpe D. Master MALE
80.
81. Okwuchi K. Miss. Female
82. Ola E. Mr. MALE
83 . OLakpe C. Mr. MALE
84.
85. Orbit W. Master MALE
86. Oyebode M.S. Miss Female
87. Ozigbo C.C. Mr. MALE
88. Ozueh P.C. Mr. MALE
89. Riessa J. Mr. MALE
90. Toju O. Mrs. Female
91.
92.
93. Udeozor R. Master MALE
94. Ukairo C. Master MALE
95. UtukP.I. Mr. MALE
96.
97. Uzodi B.C. Mrs Female
98. Whyte V.I. Mr MALE
99. Whyte V.I. Mrs. Female
100. Wills W. Master MALE
101. Zikoka U.O. Master MALE
Crew 1. Captain B. Adebayo Pilot MALE
2. F/OGerald Andan First Officer MALE
3. Joyce Egbekobar Purser Female
4. Sophia Iroegbu Cabin crew Female
5. Amaikwu Emeka Cabin Crew MALE
6. Theresa Dike Cabin Crew Female
7. Akeem Odebunmi Engineer MALE
Crashed Nigerian plane carried 75 students: parent
Families seek Nigeria crash bodiesPORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Relatives clutching photographs crowded Port Harcourt hospital mortuaries on Sunday, searching for loved ones among the 104 people -- nearly half of them children -- killed in a fiery plane crash. The Sosoliso Airlines flight on its way from the Nigerian capital Abuja to the southern oil city crashed on Saturday during a storm and burst into flames at the airport.
Two of seven survivors died on Sunday, raising the death toll to 104. Aviation officials originally said the plane was carrying 110 people but on Sunday revised that to 102 passengers and seven crew. More than 50 of the people on board were schoolchildren from a Catholic college in Abuja on their way home for the Christmas break, according to the Abuja archbishop's secretary. Also among the people who died in the crash were two expatriates working for the relief organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the head of mission for MSF France in Nigeria said. At the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, about 20 badly burnt bodies were laid out on the dirt floor of the mortuary, a room with no refrigeration or air-conditioning. Hospital staff sprinkled disinfectant on the bodies, most of whom were recognizable, and tagged them with numbers. "All we can do now is bury our dead and mourn. There is so much suffering here," said one man among hundreds of relatives who were weeping and wailing at the mortuary. Many were holding photographs of their dead relatives. At first hospital authorities said they could not release any bodies until full identification had been carried out, but the governor of Rivers state, where Port Harcourt is located, visited the hospital and ordered they should be released. Investigation beginsAviation officials said the flight data and voice recorders have been recovered. A team of investigators from the United States has begun work to determine the cause of the crash. "During our investigations, we saw the black box and flight recorder. We have handed over the crash site to investigators," Tomi Oyelade, permanent secretary in the Aviation Ministry, told reporters in Port Harcourt. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is expected to issue a statement later on Sunday. The Port Harcourt airport has been closed to all flights. Sosoliso, which began operations in 2000, had a fleet of five aircraft -- an MD-81, one MD-82 and three DC-9s, one of which crashed on Saturday, a Sosoliso statement said. Sosoliso flies many domestic routes and is one of only two Nigerian airlines that operate the busy Abuja-Port Harcourt route. The aviation industry of Africa's most populous country has grown dramatically in the past decade, but has been struck by a series of fatal air crashes. Seven weeks ago a plane operated by Bellview, another Nigerian airline, crashed near the commercial capital Lagos killing all 117 people on board. The cause of that crash has not been established. Experts say most of the country's commercial fleet is over 20 years old and second hand, while runways are often closed because of poor maintenance. It is not uncommon for planes to take off and land in torrential rain. President Olusegun Obasanjo said after the Bellview crash that Nigeria would "plug loopholes" in its aviation sector and strengthen compliance with maintenance standards. Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
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| Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/12/11/nigeria.crash.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest |
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - A plane that has crashed in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt was carrying 75 secondary school students, the mother of one of the students said citing their school.
LAGOS (AFP) - More than 50 people were reported killed when a jet airliner crashed on landing in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt. The plane was operated by the Nigerian private airline Sosoliso and was bringing passengers from the capital Abuja when it overshot the runway during a powerful electrical storm, witnesses said.
"Almost everyone was killed," an airport official told AFP by telephone, while a television station put the toll at more than 50.
"There was a lot of flames," said the official, who asked not to be named.
An official from a security company with staff at the airport said that at least three people had escaped alive from the airliner, which was burning on the runway, but there was no official word on casualties.
The private television station Channels reported more than 50 dead out of 110 aboard including seven crew, adding that 12 were known to have survived.
The local police chief, Commissioner Samuel Adetuyi, said he was on his way to the scene to check out the reports, while a Sosoliso official said she was unable to comment on the incident as senior executives were in a meeting about it.
Nigeria's ramshackle civil aviation fleet often suffers serious accidents.
On October 22 a jet airliner on a domestic route between Lagos and Abuja broke up in mid-air and plunged into a cocoa grove shortly after takeoff. All 117 passengers and crew were killed in the still unexplained incident.
Two more people were killed on November 18 when a light plane crashed outside the northern city of Kaduna. Since 1991 there have been 37 serious aviation accidents in Nigeria, killing 912 people.
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For now it is imperative that all domestic airlines in Nigeria be grounded, otherwise many lives will be lost. The ageing fleet have been signatures of the air industry. I am aghast to see many private, commercial airlines when there are no services or spare parts provided in Nigeria for these planes. The lack of services coupled with the greed of the business moguls that own these airlines have made it mandatory for this confused nation, where 'good news is always bad news' to seriously check the periodic waste of innocent lives. Unfortunately, those in government are too corrupt and self-centered to take action. We pray that our messiah, Olusegun Obasanjo, would go beyond threats and sanitize the air industry.
Apparently about 100 feared dead. Abuja to Port Harcourt flight crashed in Port Harcourt. May the souls of the departed rest in peace and their loved ones the strength to bear the loss. God help Nigeria.
This is really really sad. It is only in Nigeria you see an individual own airlines. Airline business is the most expensive to run in the world and I wonder how it is possible for Nigerian businessmen to run an airline.
The problem isn't that individuals are running airlines. The problem is that an airline business requires high technology input to run and monitor successfully. Nigeria is lacking in technology and this is the central problem. For the same reason computers are slow in Nigeria, electricity supply is a terrible nightmare, water provision is an all but forgotten issue. Instead of dealing with these problems, the government is busy playing politics and stealing money. So both government and airline operators are to blame. But government more so.
Naija's lack of maintenance culture has been the bane of the economy. Air transportation requires a great deal of maintenance and experience which is lacking in the country. I still dont understand the reason why people patronize these local airlines - the industry is not well regulated by the government.....the planes are so old, the personnel are poorly trained etc.......This is really a terrible happening..my condolences to the families of the departed souls
Haven't you heard them say "oga manage am". This is how we "manage" everything and compromise everything and our future. These were mostly secondary school students from some of our most exclusive schools going home on holidays. What a waste.
May the souls of our departed loved ones rest in peace.
Enough is Enough let all domestic airlines be grounded immediately how much more can we afford to loose. Any airline that cant afford brand new planes should leave the business forever. OBJ please beg Richard Branson or anyone else we need high speed trains to link up our cities investors are willing to come in with thier own money make the environment condusive in God's name I beg you.
The problem is not whether individuals own airlines or whatever..neither is it one of planes being aged.. There are older planes flying in other African countries which have not created cause for concern.. Rather it is all about how keen the Federal Government has been towards upgrading its monitoring infrastructure. We cannot keep relying on unserviceable equipment and poorly trained staff to manage our airspace and expect God to meet us mid-way. Avaiation staff are not being retrained at the pace at which technology progresses, older ones are being retired without making long term provision for replacement, equipment fail at will and pilots are left to use 'rule of the thumb' to figure out safety procedures.. It will interest you to note that some of these so called 'aged planes' come with more advanced safety equipment that have left 'aged' control tower equipment behind in years of technology. Its a case of using an 'analog' clock to accurately photofinish results in a relay race.
This malaise not only affects the airline industry but also every other utility service in the country.. I simply think the govt is scared to confront the real facts on ground. As long as we continue to do 'shadow boxing', we may continue to face more horrendous circumstances....think about this ..travel by air, risk plane crash, travel by road, risk daylight police extortion on part one of the journey, armed robbery on part two and bandits on part 3... Take the sea.. await extortion by the navy, or face pirates.. either which way, u have a death sentence lurking in the shadows.. Nigeria has abundant sunshine..... we absolutely dont need generators or Nepa to power infrastructure like control towers, street lighting, traffic lighting, telecom equipment etc...But if a proposal as much as gets close to approval for solar equipment, it will be so bloated by the impoverished federal civil servants that it will never see the light of an approval... yet our people suffer from the consequences of our inefficiencies. May the souls of the departed ones find peace in the bossom of the Lord
Afua, believe it or not, Nigerians are discussing and proposing High Speed Transit Links between major cities in Nigeria.
There is no lack of good ideas and people willing to effect them. Somehow, the government functionaries who are supposed to shepherd these ideas and concepts to reality often fail on the job because they cannot see beyond their noses and fat stomachs! Imbeciles!
"Nigeria has abundant sunshine..... we absolutely dont need generators or Nepa to power infrastructure like control towers, street lighting, traffic lighting, telecom equipment etc"
Probably the smartest statement ever to be made in a Nigerian messageboard. We need more people like you. |
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