A military aircraft carrying 25 passengers and seven crew members crashed in Nigeria’s Ondo state on Tuesday morning, killing all 32 people on board, according to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Air Force.
The aircraft was reportedly on a routine flight from Benin City in southern Nigeria to Lagos when it crashed near Igbokoda shortly after 9am. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said the aircraft went down close to a naval base.
Tinubu’s office expressed condolences to the families of those killed in the crash. The president also ordered the Nigerian Air Force to launch a full investigation into the cause of the accident and identify measures to prevent similar incidents.
Tinubu and Keyamo identified the aircraft as an ATR-42, a twin-engine turboprop designed to carry between 30 and 50 passengers.
Footage shared on social media showed people gathered near a river as rescue teams searched the area by boat.
A local resident, Dayo Akinte, 39, said she heard a loud sound that she initially believed was thunder around the time the aircraft crashed. She said several aircraft had been flying over the crash site following the incident.
Akinte said a fisherman who was in the nearby swamp alerted the naval base and residents after discovering the crash.
Igbokoda is located in Ilaje, an oil-producing area of southern Nigeria.
