A plane carrying the corpse of late governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu on Thursday crashed in Lagos.
An eyewitness, Ezekwem Eric, who watched the plane as it went down told Channels Television, in a telephone interview that the “plane was not high” adding that he “noticed that something was wrong with the plane”.
He noted that “suddenly the plane started descending on a fast speed inside the depot where they house fuel and fell”.
He further adds that big trucks carrying fuel were seen driving out of the facility for safety purposes before “the fire service arrived the scene of the crash”.
Channels Television’s Henry Ogunjimi, who is at the crash site, reports that search and rescue operatives have taken custody of a coffin that is believed to be carrying the corpse of the late governor.
He also reports a tussle between the police, Red Cross officials, Nigeria Airforce officials and other uniformed agencies over who should take custody of the coffin.
He adds that the officials are also fighting over who should be in charge of controlling the crowd at the site of the crash, noting that about four ambulances are on ground to take the corpses brought out of the crashed plane.
There have been conflicting reports as to how many people survived the crash with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) saying 6 while the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) are saying 5.
The crashed flight belongs to the Associated Airline and was conveying the corpse of late Ondo state governor, Olusegun Agagu to Akure for a lying-in-state programme billed to hold at the Democracy Park.
The flight recorder also known as ‘black box’ has been found and has been handed over to the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB).
It had 20 passengers on board.
The AIB has confirmed 16 of the passengers dead and has certified the survival of four.
An emergency response site has been set up.
The video below was obtained through a Skype interview with our reporter at the crash site.