Ahmed Yahaya-Joe
“If Black Boxes can survive air crashes; why don’t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?” – George Carlin (1937-2008)
Exactly 32 years ago today, on September 26, 1992, a part of each Nigerian died alongside the souls that perished on board NAF 911.
I knew one passenger. A bright and rising army officer, Major Victor Scott Kure N/5483.
He was such an accomplished and dedicated instructor that even part of the Armoured Corps School shooting range for tanks in Bauchi is named after him.
He was widely acknowledged to have been a completely apolitical officer who distanced himself from discussing national issues as much as he could.
He would rather memorably regal us with his take on Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s strategic Panzer manoeuvres in the Sahara Desert during WW II including Shaka Zulu’s tactical genius in the 1878 “Horns of the Beast” routing of the British Army at Isandlwana, near the picturesque plains of Nqutu in present-day South Africa.
To date, I still find Kure’s eyewitness insights on the Middle East conundrum very instructive. He was part of the Nigerian contingent under the auspices of a UN peacekeeping force dispatched to Lebanon under former President Shehu Shagari (1925-2018) during the brief Second Republic.
Those were the days!
More than 3 decades and still counting after that fatal crash many Nigerians understandably still have many unanswered questions on what played out that fateful evening after NAF 911 took off from Runway 1 of the Murtala Mohammed Airport crash landing almost immediately into the dense mangrove of Ejigbo at Oke-Afa behind Festac, 7 km away.
Many cynical Nigerians believe the passengers, mostly of Regular Courses 19, 20, and 21 of NDA that were back then participants of the Senior Division at Jaji who had visited Naval facilities as part of their program were “eliminated” for being “threats” to the powers that be.
While I have never believed such absurdity nor subscribed to such mischievous speculation that has evolved into a full-blown conspiracy theory over time, Nigerians are free to have their say as the truth would eventually have its way.
Yours truly has had varied interactions with those in the military – serving and retired then and now, aviation industry stakeholders including a veteran captain of the now rested Kabo Air readying for take-off behind the flight queue of NAF 911 en route Kano.
It is against that background that one has long since come to a layman’s conclusion after assessing different claims of “overloading” and “fuel contamination” including “parlous maintenance culture” fully subscribing to Malcolm Gladwell’s generalization on-air mishaps;
“The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication.”
This post is a special tribute to Kure alongside his colleagues on board NAF 911 and the crew.
We shall never see their kind again.
One can still imagine with trepidation those harrowing moments of a massive airship cascading out of the sky nose-diving into a swampy end those that survived the horrendous impact slowly suffocating.
Tick, tock, tick, tock……
Reportedly, many left written notes contents that still haven’t been made public.
What does a soldier say to himself when confronted with the inevitable?
Does he remain;
“Unbowed, unbent, unbroken”?
Or resign himself to fate muttering;
“I fought, I lost, now I rest”?
Whatever the answer;
“Only a soldier is a free man because he can look death in the face.” – Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)
“Maza!”
This is also a remembrance for my good friend and brother, Hassan Sule Maiturare, who has since also transited to blessed memory. He was Malama Delu’s sibling, Kure’s widow.
While in the ensuing years, I’ve had several high-octane debates with those harbouring highly polarized points of view on what really happened to NAF 911, in overall context it is on a day like this one soberly reflects on a particular back windscreen graffiti from the bygone era of my frequent “luxurious bus” night travel ominously emblazoned with;
“Many Have Gone”
32 years aren’t 32 days!
The ill-fated NAF 911 was ordered by the Gowon regime to enter into herculean national service in 1975.
It is actually seen here (in the attached picture) on the tarmac of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on 26 August 1986, exactly 6 years and 1 month to the day it became completely destroyed and damaged beyond repair on Saturday, September 26, 1992.
It was a C-130 Hercules with 4 gigantic engines nicknamed “Fat Albert” by its American Lockheed manufacturers from a workhorse model generally known as “Charlie” in military lingo.
The following is a chilling transcript courtesy of Kole Obasa (posted on February 3, 2017) detailing the final minutes of NAF 911 piloted by Wing Commanders Pere Alabesunu and Ali Mamadi with Squadron Leader J.A. Adeiza as Flight Engineer shortly after take-off;
“Control, this is NAF 911.”
“Go ahead NAF 911.”
“Engine failure, starboard side, coming back to base.”
“Are you declaring an emergency?”
“No”
“Control this is NAF 911.”
“Go ahead NAF 911.”
“May-day, May-day, second engine failure. Starboard inner.”
“Acknowledged NAF 911, Runway 1 is clear for you.”
Control this is NAF 911.”
“Go ahead NAF 911.”
“Control, we are heavy, we can’t make it back to base.”
“Control, we will be in the swamps.”
“Repeat NAF 911.”
“We will be in the swamps.”
“We can see the swamps, we will make it there.”
“Good luck NAF 911, rescue is on its way.”
“God be with you.”
“Its fine, we’ll be fine,”
“Mayday, Mayday, Portside third engine failure…..Mayday, control, we are going down.”
“Control . . . .”
“Control, we are going down.”
“NAF 911 this is control, what?”
“Control, we are going down.”
“This is it. . .”
“How can I, Alabesunu tell the world I can’t save this plane???…..”
“NAF 911, this is control, please respond.”
“NAF 911, are you there?”
The ominous lack of response to Ikeja Control meant one obviously sad thing – the cavernous belly of “Fat Albert” 911 had started a deadly countdown transiting from cabin to tomb.
After the fatal crash at approximately 4:30 p.m., on Saturday, concerted recovery efforts did not actively commence till 16 hours later on Sunday by Julius Berger Nigeria PLC.
Ironically, concern for the missing did not even start in Lagos but from Jaji, when Lt. Col. Kayode Are, then Directing Staff raised the alarm on the non-return of his course participant officers.
Are would later serve as DSS chief under former President Obasanjo. The lack of any form of official or coordinated response was obvious. Many Nigerians believe it was deliberate.
I don’t for 3 reasons.
First, is Nigeria’s longstanding and excruciatingly slow emergency response mechanism.
For instance, how many helicopters did we see on our TV screens duly dispatched for prompt search and rescue during the peak of the recent flooding in Maiduguri?
Second, there was an all-pervading suspicion and mutual distrust environment that so much characterized the military back then to the extent that any attempt or out-of-the-chain-of-command initiative for the mobilization for search and rescue would have been misrepresented as coup attempt manoeuvres in disguise.
Third, a widely reported misplaced national pride is characterized by the apparent refusal to seek foreign military help for a salvage operation before and even during the dark.
According to Jane’s Aircraft encyclopedia NAF 911 was designed to airlift 92 combat troops with their guns and backpacks 64 fully kitted paratroopers or even 74 litter patients yet on that fateful day reports indicate over 180 were reportedly on board out of which only 154 were officially recognized as follows;
8 crew of the 146 Nigerian personnel, including 3 Ministry of Defence civilians had a lady among Mrs. M.A. Abu, 5 Ghanaian soldiers, and a military officer each from Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. There was no flight manifest!
Meanwhile, the panel that investigated the crash of NAF 911 was headed by a naval officer with no previous aviation training, Rear Admiral Muftau Adegoke Babatunde Elegbede (1939-1994)
One of Nigeria’s foremost military historians and cardiologist, Dr Nowa Omoigui, continues;
“It was not until Tuesday, 29 September 1992, four days after the crash, that His Excellency the President, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida visited the scene of the disaster, inspecting it from the safety and remoteness of a helicopter circling above.
Victims of the crash were interred at a mass burial with “full military honours”, in Abuja on October 5, 1992.
At the funeral, General Babangida described the air crash as “a calamity, shocking in its impact and devastating in its finality. Our nation had reposed great hope in them as future leaders of the armed forces.”
Meanwhile, the first lady, Maryam Babangida, wearing an immaculate white outfit, walked around, solemnly expressing condolences to grieving widows, all in dark outfits”
Why do many Nigerians still insist that 7 Lt Colonels and 96 Majors and their equivalents in the navy and air force were “deliberately targeted for elimination”?
Courtesy of persistent bashing and relentless negative profiling by “the Lagos-Ibadan axis of the Nigerian press” in 1992, there was a mass perception that we had had enough of military governance.
The nation was so pissed off with the revolving door of arbitrary power and endless antics, an entrenched personality cult, and the rising sceptre of official impunity, among other national challenges.
Then was the fallout of the failed “Niger Delta coup” attempt of April 22, 1990. The fact that the majority of the victims of NAF 911 were from the Middle Belt and South did not help matters.
“Maradona” increasingly losing the game plan was back then primarily focused on his regime protection which not only progressively wrecked camaraderie within the officer corps but negated military professionalism the massive impact rippling out to the “bloody civilian” populace.
It was that bad!
There was also a recurring coup decimal threat following the March 1986 summary executions of among others Wing Commanders Ben Ekele, an ace fighter pilot, and Adamu Sakaba, a Soviet-trained Armaments maverick including Squadron Leaders Asen Ahura and Martin Luther both of the elite Presidential Air Fleet.
With the benefit of hindsight by the late 1980s to early 1990s, IBB had unfortunately degenerated into a hostage to power and very much a victim of his complicated ambition trapped in a seemingly endless political transition program.
After the near miss on him during the coup attempt of 22 April 1990 the unravelling assumed another level.
For instance, according to Max Siollun in his 2013 book Soldiers of Fortune: Nigerian Politics From Buhari to Babangida 1983-1993 out of the 117 persons ever executed for coup attempts in Nigeria, 78 faced the firing squad under his watch.
No doubt, IBB might have had his issues while in power even becoming security paranoid, but he was no genocidal freak.
Did he really go to the extent of taking out a planeload of middle-ranking officers?
Lest we forget that generation of officers on course were that particular time, neither field commanders nor strategically positioned staff officers. They were actually toothless bulldogs in the power equation.
Being so far away from the orbit of military threat with no substantial access to any tactical unit that could pose considerable danger to the newly installed Abuja seat of government, why not en masse retire them from service instead?
Besides, NAF 911 had earlier on its last day flown to Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Enugu back to Lagos under highly problematic engine conditions which made several cautious intending passengers of NAF 911 finally bound for Kaduna again who could afford it resort to commercial flights for their return 632 km away that fateful Saturday.
Recall also the NAF was alleged to have been so deliberately and systematically sabotaged by poor financing which seriously hampered the serviceability of its aging aircraft fleet fall out of the Vatsa coup attempt of December 1985 – said to be a major factor in the HS-125 crash of February 1995 in Kano that consumed the life of Ibrahim Sani Abacha.
How can the souls of those who perished in NAF 911 rest in peace?
The Guardian newspaper edition of January 12, 2024 answers with a rider;
“32 years after a military plane crash, widows of victims lament neglect.”
Does this not imply the widows and surviving family members of the fallen officers of NAF 911 have still not yet fully settled the entitlements of their breadwinners?
Have the Oputa Panel recommendations on settling them been implemented?
Has their case with the National Human Rights Commission since 2016 been disposed of?
“The labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain,” or what?
Too many questions, too few answers!
