Tears As Dana Crash Victims Are Remembered

Emotions were high and tears abundant yesterday as hundreds of people gathered in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, to remember the victims of a Dana plane that crashed on 3 June, killing more than 150 people.

The crash, Nigeria’s worst air disaster in almost two decades, also left a raft of people injured with about 45 of them rendered homeless at Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos.

Relatives of the victims, friends, Dana staff and others broke down in tears many times as the names of the departed were read and their photographs displayed on giant screens erected at Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island, Lagos, where the event held.

About 153 candles, representing the official number of passengers onboard the ill-fated plane, were lit and a minute of silence was observed at 3.42 p.m. the exact time Captain Peter Waxtan, said ‘mayday’, the jargon used by pilots before a crash.

The event, organised by S.E.E.D.S, a group of about 15 young men and women who met on Facebook, was filled with stirring testimonies and siring emotions that moved the crowd to tears a number of times.

S.E.E.D.S’ leader, Mr. Kwami Adadevoh, who lost 12 friends in the crash, said they came together so that Nigeria will not forget to remember those who died.

“All this started from a tweet by Kathleen Ndongmo, a Cameroonian, who said ‘we must do something’. From there we came together, first, to assist the displaced people and this event today to remember the victims and comfort their families,” Adadevoh told P.M.NEWS.

Dupe Killa-Kafidipe, another member of S.E.E.D.S, said Nigeria is renowned for forgetting its fallen heroes, adding: “the deceased should not be forgotten.”

“We do not need to wait for the government to assist people, we are giving the displaced mattresses, food, clothes and anything they need,” Ndongmo, the Cameroonian girl, said.

Poems were read and hymns were sung to comfort families of the relatives by choir members of Pastor Ighodalo’s Trinity House Church.

Investigations about the crashed plane are still ongoing but star actress, Kate Henshaw, who was at the event, said the Dana plane crashed due to negligence and greed from airport authorities and airline officials.

The Accident Investigation Bureau, the Airline Operators of Nigeria and aviation experts have warned that it would be too premature to speculate over the cause of the crash or apportion blames to anyone while investigation is ongoing.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has also rejected claims by non-experts that the agency was not negligent. The recorders were also found and have since been taken to the United States for analysis.

Christian and Muslim prayers were said with Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of Trinity House Church comforting the relatives. “They have gone to be with the Lord,” Ighodalo said.

About 153 balloons were released into the sky by relatives of the victims, the organisers and Dana staff who also lost seven of their crew members.

The crowd stared at the balloons for long as they disappeared into the sky, the same sky Dana flight 992 flew freely on Sunday 3 June before it crashed with their loved ones.

—Simon Ateba