SEVEN years ago, precisely in December 2001, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was on a state visit to Cross River State, excited, the then Governor Donald Duke was eager to showcase his achievements with the Bebi Airstrip, (Obanliku) Obudu. The two men took off from Calabar Airport aboard an Air Force plane. Thirty five minutes into the trip they had not arrived Bebi. Then Obasanjo turned to Duke in the plane and asked, “Duke, are you sure we are not flying to Cameroon?”
Traveling, by land or air to Obodu Ranch Resort, from any part of the country, is an experience worth acquiring. Whether it’s memorable or not, it leaves one with the nostalgia of witnessing the artistic nature of the Supreme Being - God.
However, the frequency of air mishaps in the area, within the last two years is gradually bequeathing a frightful sobriquet of the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ to the surrounding mountains. Among several mishaps in that area, was the helicopter crash in Obudu in 1992, which killed a former military governor Ernest Kizito Attah’s director of protocol, Chief Rowland Ajayi Peregrino and ten others when former President Ibrahim Babangida visited Cross River State.
Two years ago, on Sunday September 17, 2006, a Donier aircraft, NAF 003, flying from Abuja to the resort in Obudu crashed on the Nkokugh mountains in Mbakunu community of Sangev-Ya District of Kwanda Local Government of Benue State. No fewer than 13 top military officers died in that disaster. Again, nearly two years after, on Saturday March 15, 2008 another Obudu-bound plane, from Lagos, Beechcraft 1900D, operated by Wings Aviation Company Limited, mysteriously disappeared into thin air, and has since left the flying public in deep concern as the development has raised many questions begging for answers.
The intriguing thing about the vanishing of this aircraft is the speculations that trail the loss, shortly afterwards. When the army generals’ plane got lost, lots of stories hit town about it. The location of its crash was as confusing as the sudden disappearance. Rumour mills said it crashed in Obudu Cattle Ranch, some said the ruins had been sighted in Cameroon while others claimed that it was lying in the bush of Vandekiya.
But the wreckage was discovered in Nkokugh Mountains. Nothing appears to have changed, in terms of timely locating of the wreckage of the aircraft, particularly in view of the hoax that trailed the disappearance of the Aviation craft.
The nation was again fooled severally when the minister of state lied to the country that the wreckage of the plane had been discovered. While some said the metal heaps and bodies were found at Iyalla, in Ebonyi State, others rumoured that it crashed into Yala Community in Cross River State. For the records, there is no place like Iyalla in Ebonyi State. The coinage is still part of the folly over the missing plane. The search and rescue authorities and the aviation department have since been trading blames on whose responsibility it was to solve the problem.
No one in the aviation unit seems to know what to do when planes suddenly come down in Nigeria. What surfaces most times is the seeming endless lack of technical know-how by the relevant aviation authorities. For instance, when the Sosoliso plane crashed at the International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in December 2005, it was discovered that several hours after the crash, the plane could not be located, even within the airport. Suffice it to say that the country was later told that there was no water in the fire fighting vehicles at the airport. The vehicles were useless and could not fight the fire and the people roasted.
Now, we are being told that the search and rescue unit is under-funded and apparently, not expected to search and rescue the missing plane with empty hands. As it stands, the search continues even as Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State counts his blessings for not boarding the plane before it got lost in space. On the other hand, the families of the pilot and crew members are requesting the aviation ministry and the Federal Government to search and rescue their loved ones even as the wife of the pilot is sure that her husband is still alive. Until the plane is found, it is different strokes for different folks.
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