Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Idowu Owohunwa, has revealed that the force recovered the engine of the light jet that crashed in Lagos yesterday.
Also, the CP said that outside from the engine,some other items were recovered from the scene of the incident which were secured and handed over to the appropriate agency.
Owohunwa ,who was on the spot- assessment , said, ”the response time of the rescue teams was quite exceptional and prompt. The moment we had it, we deployed Policemen to the scene and coordinated with the first responders and the emergency rescue team to promptly evacuate the two victims to the hospital.
“ As at the time of the incident, there was no fatality on the scene . We have evacuated them to the hospital with the support of the first responders’ medical team.
“I would not know how badly injured the victims were . The medical team is in the right position to state that.
“It is a single engine plane. A light single engine plane. The Police recovered the engine and some other items at the scene which are now fully secured and being processed at the Accident Investigation Bureau,AIB.The AIB will continue from here, while ours is to ensure the scene remains secured in case there are other post crash activities to be conducted by the experts”.
The South West Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, who was also at the scene , commended members of the community for the assistance rendered.
He said, “ The rescue was timely with the assistance of the local community .Surviving in a plane crash is a matter of five minutes. If rescue comes to victims early enough, they will be rescued. Anything more than ten minutes would have been something else.
“You know we have a gas plant and petrol station here. If it had gone beyond the normal, more disasters would have been recorded.
“There were two passengers . The plane had no data recorder. It has only the flight model which got burnt along with the plane. The propeller engine has been recovered. We retrieved some personal belongings of the occupants”, Farinloye said.
Meanwhile, Cornerstonenewsng.com, gathered that the jet was on a test flight from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, and crashed at exactly 3.20 pm.
The plane reportedly had five hours of fuel endurance and those onboard were rescued alive and taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
The spokesperson of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Tunji Oketunmbi, confirmed the accident , but said investigations were still ongoing.
The plane encountered difficulties at the Computer Village axis before heading towards the accident scene.
