The aircraft crashed at about 9:13 a.m. on Monday, October 6, 2026, minutes after taking off from Benin Airport. It was carrying 20 passengers and five crew members.
Twenty-one days after the Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 aircraft, NAF 931, crashed into the Obe-Rebby swamp in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, not a single body of the 25 victims has been recovered, SaharaReporters can report.
The aircraft crashed at about 9:13 a.m. on Monday, October 6, 2026, minutes after taking off from Benin Airport. It was carrying 20 passengers and five crew members.
The aircraft was en route to Lagos after developing an engine fault overnight in Benin City.
Three weeks after the crash, however, families of the victims told SaharaReporters that they had not seen a single body to give their loved ones a befitting burial.
“As we speak today, October 27, not one body has been shown to us. Not one. How do we bury someone we cannot see? How do we give them their last respect?” a relative of one of the victims who was on the Abuja-Benin-Lagos run told SaharaReporters.
“They told us the swamp swallowed everything, but we saw how they recovered bodies in other crashes abroad. Why is this one different? They have abandoned our people inside that swamp.”
Multiple family members who spoke to SaharaReporters said the military had not provided them with a detailed briefing on the recovery operation since the initial press statement confirming the crash.
“First, they said it was a routine mission from Benin to Lagos. We proved it was an Abuja-Lagos passenger flight that slept in Benin for engine repair. Now they are silent on recovery. They have not called us for identification or DNA or anything,” another family source said.
“It is as if they want us to forget. But we cannot forget people we have not buried.”
SaharaReporters learnt that the swamp, located near the Naval Base in Igbokoda, is a dense, waterlogged mangrove forest that has complicated recovery efforts.
Local divers and fishermen initially volunteered to assist with the operation but were later asked to stay away by security operatives.
A community source in Ilaje told SaharaReporters: “The place where it crashed is a deep swamp. You cannot enter without a swamp buggy. At first, local boys went there with NAF, but now nobody is allowed. They say NAF brought its own team. Since then, no update.”
Efforts to obtain a reaction from NAF spokesperson, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, were unsuccessful as of press time.
Calls and messages sent to his known phone line were not returned.
SaharaReporters had, in two previous exclusives, revealed how NAF 931 began its journey from Abuja on Sunday, October 5, developed an engine fault in Benin and remained grounded overnight before crashing on Monday morning while travelling to Lagos.
Sources had told the newspaper that the aircraft was supposed to fly directly from Abuja to Lagos but had to stop in Benin to disembark some passengers. It was during the stop that the engine fault was detected, forcing technicians to work on the aircraft throughout the night.
The aircraft was cleared to fly the following morning, a decision that ended in tragedy a few minutes after take-off, at about 9:13 a.m., in the swampy outskirts of Igbokoda.
SaharaReporters also reported that the NAF’s two ATR-42MP aircraft, originally acquired and configured for maritime patrol, anti-piracy, anti-oil bunkering, surveillance and search-and-rescue operations under the 81 Air Maritime Group in Benin, had over the years been converted into VIP shuttles for politicians, top government officials and other civilians.
Findings showed that NAF 930, the sister aircraft to the crashed NAF 931, was used in 2022 as the first aircraft to land at the newly constructed Ekiti Cargo Airport, ferrying the then Minister of Aviation and other dignitaries.
Civilians had also openly posted on social media about flying on both aircraft for non-operational, administrative and personal trips.
Discover more from PMN S.P.O.R.T.S - A PRIME MEDIA NETWORK BRAND
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
