Story by Chioma Anyagafu, Assistant Editor and Fred Iwenjora
Posted to the Web: Saturday, October 29, 2005

HOW else will you describe the disaster that befell Nigeria last Saturday when Bellview Airlines Flight B3 210 crashed at Lisa village in Ifo Local Council of Ogun State, killing all 117 people on board? Is there ever any compensation for life? How will you compensate a woman who not only lost her husband in the crash but also the opportunity to say a final goodbye and give the body a befitting burial? How do you console a woman begging to be given only a finger or an ear of her late husband to take home as something to represent the whole body?

What story would calm a woman who had prepared a yam porridge for her daughter and her son-in-law who were coming in from a honeymoon, but never got home while the prepared food remained in the freezer for 48 hours after the young couple had long died?

How do you calm a husband who pleaded with his wife to postpone the journey till Monday since Saturday and Sundays were no working days to no avail? Would a young man who drove his own brother to the airport and was told his brother had missed the flight by fifteen minutes and should wait for the next one ever comprehend how his brother entered the same flight he was told he missed after the former had left?

Questions, questions, questions! These were some of numerous questions that demanded answers as relations after relations of people perished in the ill-fated Boeing 727 Bellview flight trooped into the corporate headquarters of the airline at Opebi in Ikeja, Lagos or at the airline’s office at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
It was, indeed, heart-rending as emotions ran high for hours and for days. Some came crying, others registered their protests as they all demanded answers from the officials of the airline concerning their beloved ones who were in the Abuja-bound flight that Saturday night.

The tears, the pains, the expression of anger, the visible apprehension, the feelings of hopelessness were all natural expectations from people so anguished by the cruel tragedy.

Who do you calm? The widow, the widower and the orphans whose circumstances were created by the crash? Would some relations of these victims ever get over the agony, the psychological trauma of losing their loved ones? How will parents who lost their only sons or daughters ever recover from the reality that their wards whom they waited for at the Abuja end of the airport that Saturday night would never land to their embrace? Could anything have saved the pilot from flying with his sister in the same aircraft? What is the future for Faith and Patience Imasuen, the twin daughters of the pilot who flew the ill-fated Bellview flight 210?

Indeed, there have been no answers. Only questions and questions. It was a pitiful sight at the corporate headquarters of Bellview as relatives of the dead got nothing but only insurance forms to fill, with words of consolation coming from the airline’s officials who were also mourning because even their beloved ones also died in the crash.

Saturday Vanguard was there and at the airport for days and came face-to-face with the bereaved families. And for all, one common denominator was the feeling of emptiness by the distinct families that they would get no chance to bury their dead, even as they did not get any opportunity for the last goodbye. We bring to you the grief, agonies and views of the affected families.

‘I narrowly missed boarding the
flight but my brother died in it’

SOLA and David Oneh, both of Deeper Life Church came to join the shuttle bus from Bellview office to the sight of the crash. Sola was the person who accompanied Steve Bayo, (92 on the list of the crash victims) to the airport that day. Both were to travel together because they had much belongings but the sight of many passengers at the airport who wanted the same flight made them to drop Sola. He tells the story.

I cannot get this picture off my head. I saw all the people that boarded the flight because Steve and I got there early. We had much load and we spent so much time booking them in. I even helped the white couple and their son with some of their loads at the booking. There was also another old lady who boarded the flight whom I also helped with her luggage.

My brother (Steve) had wanted us to travel because his load was too much but many people wanted that flight because of the time. There were some people who still missed it and perhaps they never knew how lucky they were at that point at the airport. I stood with the passengers and interacted with many of them because I stayed long. I had to wait for Brother Steve to leave before I left.

We had already concluded plans. We had called the Abuja end and asked them to bring a bigger bus to the airport to pick our belongings. I waited till they boarded the airline’s bus that took them to the tarmac. I watched from a distance as they boarded the plane.

I still remember the mood at the airport, the discussions, the laughter, the phone calls. You know whenever it is time to board flights, people make calls and we were all standing there. I would have been a victim but something happened at the airport that made us to buy only one ticket. If we had come late, perhaps I would have boarded that plane but because we came early and finished checking in our goods and made arrangements for a bus to wait at Abuja to pick them, we decided that there was no need for me to travel with Steve.

What I really want now is to be taken to Lisa Village. We have been coming since the Sunday that it was confirmed that the plane was sighted somewhere. They even showed our cheque, the Deeper Life Bible Church cheque. Brother Steve had died but God knows better. It’s unfortunate we had no chance to say bye to him but we know he is happy with the Lord.

Too sad, he’s gone without a final
word, mourns Uche Okolo’s brother

Casmir Okolo, elder brother of Uche Okolo who died in the ill-fated flight from Lagos to Abuja still looked stupefied as he brought out the particulars of his brother and began to fill forms given to him at the corporate headquarters of Bellview Airline. He paused, looked up and asked his companion, Clement who brought him to the place if his brother, Uche, was now being referred to in the past tense. As a man, he tried not to shed tears but they were unstoppably rolling down his cheeks.

“So, we’re filling forms that Uche is dead, abi? And he is not coming back? Clement, are we now filling forms about Uche and we’re talking about him in past tense? Uche that missed his flight by 15 minutes! How did he get into it? He called me to say he missed his flight and would wait for the next one. Yet, it was the one he missed that crashed and he was in it. How did it happen?”

Ironically, it was the same Clement who brought Casmir to the premises of Bellview plaza that also drove Uche to the airport that Saturday evening.
“I was with him at the airport,” he told Saturday Vanguard. “Uche was my boss and my friend. We got to the airport 15 minutes behind schedule. He had already missed the flight because the flight was loaded and set to leave when we got to the airport. The engine of the airplane was running already when I dropped Uche. The ticketing officers told him to wait for the next flight and I handed over his personal effects.

“Uche always travelled like that. He said he wanted to come back Sunday morning. He made many calls at the airport and asked me to tell some of his friends and associates he had appointment with that weekend to come on Sunday afternoon. Then, he asked me to leave and I did. We all knew he missed the flight by 15 minutes and I can’t really say how he ended up boarding that same flight.”
According to his shattered brother, Casmir, “we’ll all die but how did Uche die this way, without even saying a word to us?”

We didn’t want my wife to travel that night— Olaniyan
MR. Olaniyan was one of those who insisted on being taken to the site of the crash. His wife, Mrs. Remilekun Olaniyan was among those who perished in the crash. Olaniyan went to the site, saw the debris and trembled all the way back because he was convinced from what he saw that nothing could have saved the victims.

We didn’t want her to travel that Saturday night. We all begged her that since it was Saturday, that whatever she wanted to do could wait till Monday but you see, she gave some good excuses why she needed to be there that Saturday night and that’s that. The rest is history.

You and I know the story but I have come to ensure that really there’s no mistake. No, there was none. My wife that left that Saturday evening is not coming back to us.

‘Nkiru was pregnant when she died with her husband’
Oby Oluigbo and her sister Vivian, both wearing dark glasses to cover their blood-shot eyes came out of the Bellview plaza on Opebi fuming. Their anger was not directed at anybody but at fate itself that dealt them a deadly blow. Their younger sister, Nkiru and her husband Chukwuemeka Okoli were on their way back from Ghana and some African countries where they went for their honeymoon when they boarded the ill-fated Boeing 727 Bellview flight that crashed Saturday night.

“Isn’t this life incredible?” Oby asked the journalist. “Isn’t it funny how things turn out? Nkiru was my younger sister. She was aged 22 years, so full of life. A few weeks ago, we were all together, family and friends during her wedding to Chukwuemeka and everybody was happy. Nkiru was pregnant with her first child and died with it and her husband. Is this life not wicked?”
Oby Oluigbo told this paper that her sister and her husband were returning from honeymoon, the last lap of which they spent in Ghana.

“They called us before they boarded that flight that they were already in Nigeria and would be in Abuja in the next one hour. They asked us to wait for them at the airport and asked my mother to prepare yam porridge for them which she did. We’re still waiting for their flight to land.

“Do you know that none of the wedding gifts has been opened? Not even an envelope or a gift has been unwrapped. Everything is still like that, like they were given to them during the wedding. Some people even brought their presents after my sister and her husband had embarked on their honeymoon. And they were coming back from that honeymoon when it happened.

“Have I told you about the child? Nkiru was pregnant, her first child and they all perished. Do you see the way life is? You needed to have seen my sister and her husband, so full of life, very much in love, so happy and now this happened!

“Where do I begin their story and where do I end? Do you know that my mother prepared yam porridge and is still waiting for her daughter (Nkiru) and son-in-law, Chukwuemeka to come home and eat. The yam porridge is still in the freezer. My mum is still waiting for this joke to be over. But it’s alright. They are happy wherever they are today. God will take care of them.”

But Vivian would want more explanations. “It’s not God’s wish for anyone to die young. Nkiru was 22. Are you saying no one could explain this? Are they saying this could not have been avoided? Just three minutes after take-off and it was death. Why did it take Nigeria so long to find where the aircraft crashed? Did rescue come early enough to try and save some souls?

“Some things have not been properly explained to us and that is what we are demanding from the government and the airline. What really happened? Nkiru and Chukwuemeka and all others would feel better in their graves if we find answers to their death.

“And could you imagine the misinformation? We had been all over the place, from Kwara to Ogbomosho, Kishi, Shaki and finally to Lisa village. We’ve seen the debris and all we know is that Nkiru and Chukwuemeka are dead. All we want to know is why the happy couple, so much in love and their unborn child would ask us to prepare yam porridge for them and are not yet back. We saw the carcass of the plane. We know where Nkiru and Chukwuemeka are buried. It’s so painful we won’t be able to give them a befitting burial. It equally painful that we couldn’t meet our sister and her husband after their honeymoon.

“Is this the end of a story that began happily? Nkiru was younger than us but she found love earlier and settled down in marriage. Now, is this the end? Buried in that strange land we went to with body parts scattered all over the place? It is a sad story. This is nonsense. We want to know what happened?”

NANM will forever miss Sabulu, says Okoh
COMRADE Linus Sabulu, president of the National Associaton of the Nurses and Midwives (NANM) had come to Lagos to be part of the Nurses and Midwives Council of Nigeria meeting. The meeting had lasted from Thursday - Saturday, October 22, 2005.

Sabulu who hailed from Gombe State had checked out of the hotel and was eager to rejoin his family in Abuja even though his wife had told him not to bother returning till the next day. Love for family had an upper hand and that was how he boarded the ill-fated flight.

According to Frank Okoh, secretary of the Lagos State chapter of NANM who was with him on Friday said: “Sabulu had thought the meetings would have ended on Friday but it spilled over to Saturday. I had gone to his hotel room to discuss some personal and association matters. He was full of hopes for our association and how to put it on the path of progress. The association will really miss his astute leadership. He rose from auditor to financial secretary, deputy president before eventually becoming the president in the over ten years of his involvement.

“Sabulu was a very nice guy. I am not saying so because he’s dead. He was a result-oriented leader. His driving force propelled the association to greater height. He was a man always after success. Only God knows why he and the other passengers of the ill-fated Bellview flight had to die that way.

“Our association’s executives have been meeting and will soon come up with plans on how to honour him. He was a friend and a wonderful colleague. We would forever remember him for his positive attitude to things.”

‘It’s a pity search-and-rescue efforts were slow’
KUNLE Martins is the president of Cabin Crew Members Association of Nigeria which was formed in 1990. Three crew members who belong to the association in the persons of Victoria Etim, Queen Ozekhome and Sanni Steve were involved in the air crash. Martins spoke on what the body intends to do to ensure that the families of the deceased get their entitlements.

There are those who would point to the risky nature of our job, but I want to tell you that some people have flown for thirty five years and nothing has happened to them. But I want to call on the government agencies involved in this business to take it seriously. I say this because a few months ago, we organised a seminar/workshop on safety in air transportation in Nigeria. No one came from FAAN, NAMA.

But Governor Tinubu who didn’t even have a stake, sent a representative. I want the government to put certain checks in place. Government must check how much money is released to different agencies and how they spend the money. This administration must look into these things.

It is also shameful that our search and rescue team could not trace where the aircraft crashed. I was with the AIT crew when we got to Lisa. I saw pieces of parts of the aircraft and human beings and could only imagine what may have happened to the plane. Our lives are not safe. It is not like that all over the world. We only have to rely on God.

I have been flying since 1993. I started with Okada Air. I see the work as just another job. An accident does not make you not to drive around anymore. What must worry Nigerians is the lack of knowledge and inability to take prompt action when there is an emergency.

The area where we, as a union, will take seriously is monitoring what happens to the insurance pay cheque of the victims. This is an area where there is always a problem. I recall the case of one young woman who worked for one airline and died on active duty. We fought that case until she was paid her entitlements. I don’t believe Bellview Airlines will try to do anything funny. But as a union, we’ll only monitor it to see that the families receive the rights of our late colleagues who were wonderful crew members of note in Nigeria.