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Crocodile on plane kills 19 passengers

Posted by 9jabook.com webmadam on October 22, 2010 at 7:00am
678867-croc.jpgA STOWAWAY crocodile on a flight escaped from its carrier bag and sparked an onboard stampede that caused the flight to crash, killing 19 passengers and crew.

The croc had been hidden in a passenger's sports bag - allegedly with plans to sell it - but it tore loose and ran amok, sparking panic.

A stampede of terrified passengers caused the small aircraft to lose balance and tip over in mid-air during an internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The unbalanced load caused the aircraft, on a routine flight from the capital, Kinshasa, to the regional airport at Bandundu, to go into a spin and crash into a house.

A lone survivor from the Let 410 plane told the astonishing tale to investigators.

Ironically the crocodile also survived the crash but was later killed with a machete by rescuers sifting through the wreckage.


British pilot Chris Wilson, 39, from Shurdington, near Cheltenham, Glocs was acting as the plane's first officer alongside Belgian pilot Danny Philemotte, 62, who was owner of the plane's operator Filair.

The plane smashed into an empty house just a few hundred metres from its destination.

"According to the inquiry report and the testimony of the only survivor, the crash happened because of a panic sparked by the escape of a crocodile hidden in a sports bag,” news organisation Jeune Afrique reported.

"One of the passengers had hidden the animal, which he planned to sell, in a big sports bag, from which the reptile escaped as the plane began its descent into Bandundu.

"The terrified air hostess hurried towards the cockpit, followed by the passengers."

The plane was then sent off-balance "despite the desperate efforts of the pilot", said the report.

"The crocodile survived the crash before being cut up with a machete."

The plane was a Czech-made Let L-410 Turbolet, one of more than 1,100 produced as short-range transport aircraft and used mainly for passenger services...
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Plane Crash averted: 52 People escape death as plane overshoots runway in Port Harcourt •10 passengers sustain injuries

Posted by 9jabook.com on March 14, 2010 at 12:00pm
Forty seven passengers and five crew members narrowly escaped death yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when a Nig.erian Air Force plane veered out of control after landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport.


The passengers, comprising journalists, officials of the National Emergency Management Agency as well as other agencies responsible for rescue operations in the country, ironically, were taking part in a simulated exercise to demonstrate the responsiveness of the relevant agencies to emergency situations.

Although no death was recorded from the incident, 10 of the passengers on board the flight sustained injuries, eyewitnesses who emerged from the crash said
Mr. Onyebuchi Ezigbo, the THISDAY Abuja Bureau correspondent, who emerged from the crash unscathed but traumatized, confirmed that only one of the passengers sustained a fracture to his hand and was immediately rushed to Teme Clinic, Port Harcourt for medical attention.

The fuselage of the Air Force plane, he said, was damaged beyond recognition and was left inside the bush where it skidded to a halt in the mud.

The passengers, most of them officials of the Nigerian Air Force, Federal Fire Service, N.igerian Police Force, National Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Commission and journalists were flown to Port Harcourt from Abuja aboard an Air Force Plane 950 of the G888 series.

Ezigbo explained that the plane landed safely but instead of decelerating a few seconds after hitting the tarmac, it kept accelerating at terrific speed until it overshot the runway.

Ezigbo and other passengers were thankful that the plane did not burst into flames, disclosing that the fire fighters at the airport responded promptly to the accident.

The Port Harcourt airport, located in the Omagwa community, some 30 kilometres away from the city, was immediately closed to traffic.

An Arik Airline aircraft from Abuja that wanted to land was turned back midair, however another Arik aircraft a few hours later was given clearance to land and take off from the airport.

Only last month, an Augusta reconnaissance helicopter belonging to the Ni.gerian Navy crashed at Isiokpo in Ikwerre Local Government, Rivers State, killing all the occupants.

NEMA’s director, Search and Rescue Operations, Air Commodore Yomi Bankole who later addressed the press at the airport said the exercise was meant to be a simulated one as they set out hoping to take steps to move from the textbook approach by getting some practical experience before the unfortunate incident occurred yesterday.

“It was an unfortunate incident. A plane we used veered off the runway,” he said, but promptly refused to speculate on the cause of the accident.

“In the aviation industry, we do not run into hasty conclusions until after investigations,” but he assured that a team of investigators from the Air Force has already taken over investigations and at the appropriate time the Air Force would provide insight into what caused the incident.

The director general of NEMA, Alhaji Audu Bida who was billed to be in Port Harcourt but had to go to Kano due to a fire incident in the northern city, when called on the phone said, “it is a sad event but we are only happy that no one lost his life.

“This is why we should all be very proactive. Incidents like this can never be predicted but it is always good that the country prepares very well to handle them whenever they occur.”

According to him, it was due to events like this that prompted NEMA into planning the exercise which was interrupted by the near mishap and led to the cancellation of the exercise. He promised that NEMA would review the entire incident and plug the loop holes.

Senate Committee chairman on NEMA and other search and rescue agencies, Senator Smart Adeyemi who was at the airport after the accident said the incident has “exposed how unprepared we are given the equipment on the ground.

“It is unbecoming that we have only fire fighting vehicles in the airport. Our only luck was that the plane did not burst into flames, otherwise, the equipment on the ground would not have contained the disaster.”

All 47 civilian passengers flew back to Abuja yesterday on board a 6.30pm Arik Airways flight, while the five-man Air Force crew was flown aboard a helicopter to the military hospital at the Air Force base, Port Harcourt.
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LAGBUS ATTACKED by MObile Policemen

Posted by 9jabook.com on February 18, 2010 at 3:09am
A convoy of mobile police officers, on Wednesday, assaulted passengers in the Lagos State Asset Management bus transit popularly called ‘LAGBUS' with tear gas leaving a driver and some passengers injured.

According to an eye witness, the LAGBUS with serial number 241 and license number XS584 AAA was driving out of the Ikorodu Bus Station when its path was barred by a three-vehicle convoy of mobile police officers moving on the wrong side of traffic.jpeg&STREAMOID=uVH4P$y53CUtgDPwU1UmeS6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxQerx_My0WQwrn71vR7jMvFnW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-

Drama ensued when the captain of the LAGBUS, Mr. Peace, was ordered to drive backwards so that the police convoy could proceed.

Witnesses said the driver was unable to comply because other buses where lined up behind him. This enraged the officers and one of them opened a canister of tear gas and threw it directly into the driver's face and subsequently into the vehicle. At this point, commuters panicked and fled for their lives with some inhaling tear gas in the process.

"The bus had already loaded and wanted to come out. Those mobile police followed one way and blocked the bus. So about four or five police officers came down to meet the driver and told him to move back," said an eyewitness, Usman Abiodun a LAGBUS driver. "Another bus (my bus) was behind my captain's (peace's) bus, so there was no chance for him to go back. Before everybody knew a thing, they had sprayed tear gas inside the bus. It poured on the captain's face and another woman sitting behind the driver. All passengers ran away from the bus. The captain has not opened his opened his eyes. Peace's eyes are swollen. We had to carry him to Alausa but he still has not opened his eyes."

Abuse of law

Though two traffic cops and some road safety officers were in front of the bus station when the incident happened, the mobile police officers went unchallenged.

Attempts to speak to the traffic officers on duty proved abortive as they fled the scene immediately after the incident.
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Another Mutallab ? as time in toilet of 1 hour sparks outrage by passengers

Posted by 9jabook.com on December 28, 2009 at 12:47am
Detroit terror attack: Second Nigerian arrested on Amsterdam flight By NICK ALLEN A second Nigerian man has been arrested on a Northwest Airlines jet in Detroit 48 hours after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up an airliner unday's flight - Northwest Airlines 253 - was exactly the same route that Abdulmutallab targeted on Christmas Day. The pilot alerted the authorities and the plane made an emergency landing and was met by police on its arrival in Detroit. The man, who is in his 30s, reportedly locked himself in a toilet for more than an hour as the plane flew over the US. Before locking himself in to the toilet the man had already been up and down to the same cubicle several times. Cabin crew became increasingly suspicious, broke the door down and dragged him out. He is then said to have become irate and verbally aggressive. He was subdued and the pilot contacted the airport to say there was an emergency on board. Emergency vehicles gathered on the runway to meet the plane. The passengers and crew were evacuated from the plane and the man was formally arrested. Officials said no explosive device had been found on the suspect. The man had boarded the flight with no luggage. President Barack Obama, who is on holiday in Hawaii, was informed immediately. White House officials said Mr Obama was to have further talks with his aides over airline security. However a senior US official told Fox News that the man arrested on Sunday was simply a “sick passenger”. Another official told CNN the incident appeared to be “non-serious” and that the disruptive passenger “does not appear to be a threat”. The FBI gave the all-clear within hours of the latest alert. Like Abdulmutallab, the passenger had flown from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then picked up Flight 253 to Detroit. Abdulmutallab, who had studied engineering in London until last year, disappeared into a toilet for a long period of time before trying to set off his device. The flight, which had 257 passengers and 12 crew on board, landed safely in Detroit at 12.35pm local time. The plane was removed to a secure area of the airport for additional searches by bomb experts. Police took the disruptive passenger into custody for questioning. An airline spokeswoman, Sue Elliott, said the passenger was "verbally disruptive". She added: "Out of an abundance of caution the flight crew asked the plane be met on arrival by law enforcement."
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