Nigeria air force lowers plane crash toll to 25, civilians among victims

The Nigerian Air Force on Tuesday lowered the death toll from its plane that crashed a day earlier to 25 as it released the victims' names which included civilians and said no survivors were found.

In one of the country's worst air disasters in recent years, the air force had on Monday — the day of the crash — said 32 people were on board an ATR-42 twin-engine turboprop that went down in a swampy area near a naval base in Ondo state.

President Bola Tinubu later Monday evening said that all 32 people aboard — 25 passengers and seven crew — had been killed.

But the air force on Tuesday listed 25 after accounting for all persons on board.

Flight "NAF 931 had 25 persons on board, comprising five crew members and 20 passengers," Air Force spokesman Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame said in a statement, adding: "No survivors have been found."

Civilian family members were travelling aboard the plane. The list showed six names without a military rank prefix.

Major General Samaila Uba, spokesman for Defence Headquarters, said in a separate statement Tuesday that there were "some members of families on board".

Tinubu and the military chiefs have ordered a probe into the accident.

"The aircraft was on a routine mission from Benin (city) to Lagos when the accident occurred," Ejodame said.

The plane crashed near the town of Igbokoda, located in Ilaje, an oil-producing region in southern Nigeria.

"This is a painful moment for our armed forces and for the entire nation," Tinubu said Monday, declaring three days of public mourning.

A video circulating on social media showed a small crowd gathered near a river while rescuers searched the area by boat.

In May 2021, Nigeria's top-ranking army commander, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 other officers were killed when their plane crashed in bad weather while trying to land at northern Kaduna state airport.

Seven people died when a military plane crashed into a house in northern Nigeria, killing all those on board in August 2015.

Earlier that same month, a helicopter crashed into a lagoon in Lagos, killing six, including the American pilot.