When An Aircraft Enters A Home

Just because they live close to an airport, they see low flying aircraft every day, even as they know that they cannot afford a flight ticket. Between the couple, Jeremiah and Josephine Okwuchukwu, who live near the airport are four children aged 11, nine, seven, and a few months old baby.

Jeremiah is a commercial motorcyclist (Okada rider), while his wife is a job seeker. Josephine’s last attempt at self-employment was thwarted by a rainstorm that destroyed her newly constructed kiosk which she had hoped to use for the production and sale of “fufu’’ (cassava flour) in front of their house.

Tragedy struck at the home of the Okwuchukwus as they died with their last child on June 3 when a commercial airliner slammed into their rented apartment at Olaniyi Street, Iju-Isaga, Lagos.

Their other three children, Joel, Chisom, and Ester, had gone on an errand shortly before the plane crash. These children were taken to Government House by the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, 24 hours after the accident.

Although the cause of the crashed DANA Flight 0992 had no terrorist input, it however, had a maximum impact.All the 153 passengers and crew onboard were killed, as well as a yet-to-be determined number of persons on ground. It also destroyed properties worth millions of naira.

“Mama Joel (Mrs Okwuchukwu) was like a sister to me,’’lamented Mrs. Dupe Awosika, 30, a resident of No. 10, Olaniyi St., Iju-Ishaga, Lagos.

Awosika’s residence is separated from the olive-green three-storey building that the plane crashed into, by a mere brick wall.

“She was a mother to the end as her corpse was found clutching her equally dead baby,” Awosika said in tears as she watched heavy tractors pulled down what remained of the building.

A petty-trader and mother of three, Awosika said it was most unlikely that the poor couple ever took a flight in an aircraft, lamenting that “it is an irony of life that an airplane flew into their bedroom and killed them”.

According to her, the Sunday crash will forever haunt residents of the area as they witnessed what no normal human being would want to see twice in his lifetime.

“Our houses are directly on the aircraft’s landing approach to the Murtala Mohamed Airport, Ikeja, and we are used to their noise.

“Some very big aircraft make our houses shake and a new tenant would likely rush out in the fear that the plane is crashing in. Well, it finally did on Sunday and killed Mama Joel, her husband, her baby and many others unknown to me.

“Since then, we have known no peace as the government has virtually taken over our street,” she said as another plane shook the building on its way to the airport.

DANA flight 0992 from Abuja to Lagos had already descended from its cruising altitude, preparatory to landwhen the mishap occurred. The McDonnel Douglas MD 83 aircraft nosedived into a two-storey residential apartment.

The compound it crashed into in a densely populated area of the Lagos metropolis also housed a warehouse, a printing press and a church.

Mr.Zaccheus Sobande, a 74-year-old tailor and resident of No. 1, Sobande Close, off Olaniyi Street, Iju-Isaga, said the crash was a double tragedy to him.

“I lost my first child to an illness on Saturday; and 24 hours later, my neighbours got killed in their home as this crash also claimed several other strangers who were in the plane.

“God knows why. We’ll not forget them, and we can only pray for the repose of their souls,’’ Sobande said.

Sobande opposed any attempt to demolish houses in the area, saying that many of the houses had been there for decades, just like the airport.

“You need not throw away your kitchen knife just because it injured you,’’ he said in his workshop, a mere 20-metre away from the debris of the crashed airliner.

Sobande, however, appealed to the federal and Lagos State governments to ensure that the families of the victims are handsomely rewarded.

“Also, those whose property were affected, especially this beautiful three-storey building that the plane crashed into, should be provided plots of land and money to rebuild their homes,” he appealed.

Idayatu Ali, a 24-year-old unemployed school leaver who resides close to the scene of the crash expressed fear,and would not like the victims to be buried at the scene of the accident “for fear of ghosts”.

According to her, human beings are no goats, and when they die prematurely, especially violently, their ghosts will haunt the scene of death for a while.

“This is no superstition; I have witnessed where a young man died in an accident and his ghost continued to cry at the scene for days until a sacrifice was performed.

“Please, tell them not to bury the victims here or some of us will have to abandon our homes,” she pleaded.

Jude Agwu, a commercial motorcyclist, said he and some of his colleagues would offer sacrifices to Ogun (the Yoruba deity in charge of wars and iron) and get rid of any fear of ghosts.

The recommendation came during preliminary deliberations on the plane crash on the floor of the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

A Dana Airline aircraft MD 83 crashed into residential buildings in the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos on June 3, killing the 153 people on board.

Several others were also reportedly killed after the aircraft plunged into a two-stored building.

Bodunde writes for NAN

Dele Bodunde