Air Force trainer jet crashes in Benue

M

On Friday while participating in a normal training exercise, a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) FT-7NI trainer jet crashed in Makurdi, Benue State.

The incident was verified in a statement by NAF spokesperson Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet.

According to Gabkwet, there were no casualties or property losses in the vicinity of the impact.

At the NAF Base Hospital in Makurdi, he said that two of the aircraft’s pilots had survived and were being treated.

A Board of Inquiry has been established by Air Vice Marshal Hasan Abubakar, the Chief of Air Staff, to ascertain the immediate and indirect causes of the disaster.

A NAF aircraft made an emergency landing at Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos in February 2023.

The Cessna Citation CJ3 aircraft, it was learned,

Meanwhile, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Hasan Abubakar, has constituted a Board of Inquiry to determine the immediate and remote cause of the crash. In February 2023, a jet belonging to NAF made an emergency landing at Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos. It was gathered that the aircraft, a Cessna Citation CJ3 was on a routine flight to Ilorin when it lost its tyres. The incident, however, forced the aircraft to land on its underside without the aid of a landing gear.