…NAF directs civil aviation investigation agency to take over probe The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria has been mandated by the Nigerian Air Force to lead investigation into the crash of a military aircraft in which the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 others died on Friday in Kaduna.

The AIB spokesperson, Tunji Oketumbi, said on Saturday that the Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder of the crashed Beechcraft 350 aircraft had been recovered and investigation had commenced.

“Investigators will download and analyse vital information contained in the recorders at the AIB-N’s world-class flight safety laboratory in Abuja,” Oketumbi said in a statement.

He noted that the mandate given to AIB-N was based on the Memorandum of Understanding it signed with the military on July 1, 2020 covering areas of mutual assistance.

Speaking with our correspondent, Oketumbi said, “This is not the first time we will be asked to investigate a military crash. We were asked to do so some years ago. As usual, both the preliminary and final reports of this crash will be submitted to the military which invited us to do it. It is the military that will decide what to do with it thereafter.”

Oketumbi had earlier told our correspondent that despite that the crash occurred at the civil aviation arm of the airport, the AIB-N would not be able to investigate it except it was invited to do so, because the crash involved military aircraft.

He said, “We are civil and we investigate civil aircraft occurrences. So, we do not deal with military aviation except they invite us.”

It was reported that the aircraft, with registration number 5N-R203, was billed to land at the Nigerian Air Force Base in the Mando area of Kaduna before it diverted and attempted to land at the Kaduna International Airport.

An Air Traffic Controller source told our correspondent that the NAF jet diverted from the military airport to the civil one due to bad weather, touched down but skidded off Runway 05 and burst into flames.

Oketumbi told our correspondent that there was nothing unusual in a military aircraft landing at a civil airport.

He said, “Most of the airports are joint military and civil aviation airports. Their (military) airports are not entirely different from that of civil aviation. Most of them are joint military/civil aviation airports.

“So it does not matter where a military aircraft lands. It is still belonging to the military. It has not reduced the status and has not removed the tag of being a military aircraft.”

He added, “Even if a civil aircraft lands in a military airport, that does not remove the fact that it is a civil aircraft. And if there’s a need for investigation in this sense, it is going to be done by the AIB.

“So it is the aircraft that we are interested in. Therefore all they need to do is to liaise with the airport and say their aircraft crashed into that position and possibly ask if the AIB could be allowed to investigate it.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has assured air passengers that the Kaduna airport was still in operation despite the crash of the NAF jet at the civil aviation airport.

On whether the Kaduna airport was open to operations after the accident on its civil aviation arm, the General Manager, Public Affairs, FAAN, Henrietta Yakubu, told our correspondent that domestic airlines were being expected at the facility on Saturday afternoon.

“Kaduna airport has not been shut, they are expecting Air Peace to land soon,” she stated. ,,