ATTAHIRU: Military aviation diverted flight before crash; more revelation as experts analyse recovered black box

As the remains of the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff Gen Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 others who died in an air-crash Friday were laid to rest Saturday, more details of the incident are coming up.

The Beachcraft plane, with the registration number 5N-R203, belonging to the Nigerian Air Force crash-landed on its way to the Kaduna International Airport around 6pm Friday.

Military aircraft, especially those of the NAF, usually land and take off on air force bases as controlled by the Nigeria military aviation.

And the one conveying Attahiru and others, billed to attend a Passing Out Parade at the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna on Saturday, intended to touch down at the NAF base in the Mando area of the state.

But the pilot had to divert the flight.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Lucky Irabor, through a statement by the Defence Headquarters, had revealed the cause of the accident: bad weather.

But the National Daily reported the PDP caucus in the House of Reps called for a wider investigation.

“Our caucus calls for a system-wide investigation into the cause of the crash as well as the last two crashes of our military planes which also led to the loss of lives of our gallant and promising officers,” the group said.

The military authorities said the lack box—the flight recorder—of the crashed plane was recovered and transferred to the Accident Investigation Bureau on Saturday.