The Ill fated NAF plane that crashed in Kaduna that killed the Chief Of Army Staff(COAS), Lieutenant-General Ibrahim Attahiru, was said to have successfully landed at the Kaduna airport before it went up in flames.
AF aircraft, a Beecroft, similar to the one that crashed in Abuja, few months ago, was supposed to have landed at the NAF base, but was diverted to the Kaduna international airport because of bad weather.
A NAF source who does not want to be mentioned in print, told Saturday Sun, that “it is a Beechcraft aircraft the same type that crashed at the Abuja
Airport recently and they left Abuja late Friday afternoon. What happened was that they were supposed to have landed at the NAF base, but they now diverted them because of the weather because they have more instruments, landing instrument at the Kaduna international airport. The Kaduna airport has more landing instruments than that of the NAF. So because of the weather they don’t want them to land at the NAF base. The tower now diverted them to the airport. The plane landed successfully, it touched the ground successfully but skipped off the runway. We don’t know what happened, may be the pilot lost control on the runway that is what the investigators would have to find out.
It is not that it crashed midair, no. It landed successfully and crashed within the airport. It did not crash land or developed any technical fault. You know there are two runways at the Kaduna international airport. We have 05 and Runway 06, it depends on the direction an aircraft is coming from. But the aircraft landed on runway 05. If you are coming through the right angle you will be made to land at runway 06, and if it’s through the left angle it’s runway 05.
The Chief of the Air Staff is already in Kaduna.
