Nigeria has revoked the license of the company whose commercial airliner crashed the day before leaving 96 dead, the country’s third major civilian air catastrophe in little over a year.
Among those killed Sunday were the country’s top Islamic cleric, his son, who was a senator, and an ex-president’s son.
“The federal government has decided to suspend the operating license of ADC airlines forthwith,” the minister, Babalola Borishade said on Monday.
Announcing the ban, the minister emphasized the responsibility of the pilot in the crash of the Boeing 737. The final toll, he said, is 96 dead and nine survivors.
“The pilot refused to take advantage of weather advice and the opinion of the tower to exercise patience and allow the weather to clear for a safe take-off,” he said.
He also announced that crash investigators from the US National Transportation and Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, and engine makers Pratt and Whitney would be arriving in the next 24 hours to help with the enquiry.
One survivor described the accident and how she was able to call her father as she lay in the wreckage.
“First it shook violently and then crashed,” said Esther Keyiobo, a 25-year-old student. “The force threw me out. I had my GSM and called by father immediately, but initially he did not believe me.”
“When I started shouting, he believed me and rushed to the ADC office in Lagos.”
Flight 053 from Abuja to Sokoto was carrying 100 passengers and five crew members when it went down Sunday in bad weather.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who said he was “profoundly shocked and saddened” by the accident, has ordered an investigation, according to his spokesman, Oluremi Oyo.
While Nigeria does not have the worst air safety record in Africa, nearly 1200 people have died in more than 40 plane crashes since 1991. Accidents in December and October last year each claimed more than 100 lives.
Among those who died in the crash Sunday were the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammad Maccido, and presided over Nigeria’s Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), and his son.
The sultan, who was 80, was the spiritual head of the more than 50 million Muslims in the west African country of some 130 million people.
The state-run News Agency of Nigeria said that other top-ranking government officials, senators, politicians and the son of Nigeria’s former president Shehu Shagari were also on board the ill-fated airliner.
Miraculously, the three daughters of the governor of Kogi State in central Nigeria were among the nine survivors, according the Guardian daily.
One of the plane’s black boxes was found and taken by police, the head of Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau, Asgus Ozoka, said on Monday. “I cannot give out any information until it has been given to us,” he said.
The director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Rowland Iyayi, said Monday that the pilot of another airline set to take off from the same airport at the same time chose to stay on the ground, highlighting the possibility of pilot error in the crash.
The is not the first major air accident by an ADC plane. Ten years ago, almost to the day, a commercial airliner crashed in a lagoon near Lagos, killing all 143 people on board.
The crash Sunday is the most recent in a string of accidents that have severely tarnished Nigeria’s airline sector, which has been plagued with cases of corruption and a poor record of maintenance.
In mid-September 14 soldiers — including 10 generals — died when their 228-221 Dornier crashed in the center of the country, prompting President Obasanjo to return to Nigeria from abroad and declare a five-day mourning period.
Confronted with Nigeria’s worsening air safety record, the Obasanjo took emergency measures in December 2005, including the banning of three private airlines.