Plane Crash: Bodies, Black box recovered

All was calm and gloomy yesterday in Iju-Ishaga on the outskirts of Lagos, where Dana Air flight 9J-922 went down on Sunday.

Rescue operations have given way to investigation – on how and why the aircraft crashed.

It was, also, time for relatives of victims to begin the terrible but necessary task of identifying their loved ones among the piles of bodies – 148, as at 8.30pm- taken to the morgue.

All 153 people on board died in the crash. An unspecified number of people died on the ground as the plane crashed into buildings.

Family members of victims were at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja to identify the bodies of their relatives.

Federal Road Safety Commission spokesman Jonas Agwu gave the details of the recovered bodies as males 88, females 48 and children 12.

He said the recovery of bodies would continue today.

DNA tests have begun on the retrieved bodies from the scene of the crash, especially those burnt beyond recognition, according to the General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA) Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu. He said the tests were being carried out at LASUTH.

The bodies were taken to the morgues at LASUTH and the Mainland General Hospital.

An official said the identified bodies were tagged.

Another FRSC official Mr. Fatai Adesina Bakare added: “ We have also recovered a number of personal effects, like handbags, traveller’s bags, shoes, combs and cash. We have, for instance, an identity card of an employee of NNPC, and from his purse, we recovered some cash, and business cards, which have been lodged. We also recovered a woman’s a purse containing $114 and N4,000 cash.”

“We have created a desk where all those personal effects are been documented and officials who are in charge would do justice to them and ensure that it gets to family members of the victims safely,” he added.

Two Indians were among the victims of the air crash. One was the co-pilot of the ill-fated plane. Rani Malik, the consular officer of the Indian High Commission in Lagos told PTI that the name of the Indian co-pilot was Mahendra Singh Rathore.

Rijo Eldos, a young computer engineer from Neriamangalam in the Idukki district of Kerala, was the other Indian. According to his family in Kochi, Eldos was travelling from Abuja to Lagos to take part in a company meeting. He was working with Reddington Nigeria.