BY Fredrick Nwabufo
The defence headquarters on Sunday announced the disappearance of a Nigerian air force plane that was on “operational mission” in Adamawa state.
“An Alpha Jet (NAF 466) belonging to the Nigerian Air Force is missing around Adamawa state,” read a statement signed by director of defence information, Major-General Chris Olukolade.
“The aircraft, with two pilots onboard, left Yola at about 10:45am on September 12, 2014 on a routine operational mission and was expected back by 12:00 noon. Since then, all efforts to establish contact with the aircraft have not yielded any positive result.”
However, he said search-and-rescue efforts towards establishing contact with the crew were already ongoing.
“In view of the foregoing, you are please requested to disseminate this information through your news medium for the awareness of the general public,” it added.
Although the bulk of the armed forces’ operations in the insurgency-ravaged northeast centres around foot soldiers, the use of air planes has recently been emerging as an important component as well.
Earlier in the month when Boko Haram fighters invaded and overtook Bama, Borno state, the Nigerian air force sent air strikes to the town to flush out the insurgents.
It is the second time in the year that an air force jet has been declared missing.
On July 21, a Nigerian air force Mi-35 helicopter went missing and then crashed in Bama. The defence headquarters initially said two of the three people aboard (two pilots and an engineer-crew member) died in the crash, which occurred due to a technical fault.
But two days later, it announced that Warrant Officer Augustine Nwanonenyi, the supposedly dead engineer-crew member of the helicopter, was found alive.
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