The Nigerian Air Force on Tuesday lowered the death toll from a military plane crash in southwest Nigeria to 25 and said no survivors had been found, revising its figures a day after one of the country’s worst air disasters in recent years.
The ATR-42 twin-engine turboprop went down on Monday in a swampy area near Igbokoda, in the Ilaje local government area of Ondo State, an oil-producing region in southern Nigeria.
On Monday, the Air Force had said 32 people were on board. President Bola Tinubu later that evening said all 32 — 25 passengers and seven crew — had been killed and declared three days of national mourning, calling it “a painful moment for our armed forces and for the entire nation.”
But in an updated statement on Tuesday, Air Force spokesman Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame said the aircraft had 25 people on board after a final accounting.
“Flight NAF 931 had 25 persons on board, comprising five crew members and 20 passengers,” Ejodame said. “No survivors have been found.”
The Air Force released the names of the victims. The list included six civilians without military rank prefixes. Defence Headquarters spokesman Major General Samaila Uba confirmed that “some members of families” were on board the flight.
According to the Air Force, the aircraft was on a routine mission from Benin City, in Edo State, to Lagos when it crashed.
Video circulating on social media showed a small crowd gathered near a river as rescuers searched the area by boat.
President Tinubu and military chiefs have ordered an investigation into the cause of the accident. The ATR-42, a French-Italian-made regional turboprop, is widely used by militaries and civilian airlines for short-haul flights.
The crash is one of Nigeria’s deadliest military aviation accidents in recent years. In May 2021, Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 other officers were killed when their plane crashed in bad weather while attempting to land at Kaduna airport in the north.
Nigeria has a history of both military and civilian air accidents, often linked to poor maintenance, weather and difficult terrain.
