Mystery is deepening over the deafening, explosion-like bang heard by residents of Igbokoda shortly before a Nigerian Air Force aircraft crashed into a swampy part of the Ondo State community on Monday.
While there has been no official confirmation that an explosion occurred aboard the aircraft before it went down, eyewitness accounts gathered by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) have brought fresh attention to the sound that preceded or accompanied the crash and sent residents fleeing in different directions.
The military aircraft, marked NAF931, was on a routine flight from Benin to Lagos when it crashed around Igbokoda in Ilaje Local Government Area.
Residents who spoke to NAN on Tuesday described hearing a sudden, extraordinarily loud bang. With the community hosting a Naval Base, some initially feared that the sound signalled a terrorist attack or even the outbreak of hostilities.
The panic was immediate.
Parents rushed to schools to retrieve their children, traders abandoned their businesses and hurriedly closed their shops, while normally busy streets became deserted.
For resident Adesina Alade, the first thought was that Igbokoda had come under attack.
“When I heard the loud bang, I was scared, thinking that it was a war or terror attack since we have a Naval Base here,” Alade said.
“It took long before I could get myself. I believed the loud bang had killed someone which I don’t know of.”
Market woman Mariam Oluyemi said the sound was frightening enough for her to immediately shut her shop and race to her children’s school.
“I closed my shop immediately like other market women too, and the streets were deserted.
“I managed to get to my children school and by the time I got there, many parents were waiting to pick their children too before we later heard that it was a plane crash,” she said.
Another resident, Ahmed Ayanwale, was asleep when the bang jolted him awake.
Because it was raining, Ayanwale initially thought he had heard an unusually powerful thunderclap.
By the time he rushed outside, however, fear had already swept through the community.
“I later heard it was a plane crash and I rushed down to the crash site to see things for myself,” he said.
The eyewitness accounts now leave an important question for investigators: what exactly produced the deafening sound?
As at the time of this report, the is yet no evidence establishing that the aircraft exploded in the air before crashing.
A loud impact, structural failure or other event associated with the accident could also account for what residents heard. Only an official investigation can establish the sequence, stated GWG.
The distinction is crucial because the residents’ accounts establish what they heard, not necessarily what caused it, the newspaper wrote.
Another resident, Modesola Aladeyehun, said the incident brought commercial activities in Igbokoda and surrounding communities to a temporary standstill.
After the initial fear subsided and word spread that an aircraft had crashed, residents began moving towards the swampy crash site.
“The sight of the crash site was horrible. I cried my heart out yesterday after hearing that 25 souls perished in the crash. I pray to God to cleanse our land,” Aladeyehun said.
The accounts add another dimension to questions surrounding the final moments of the NAF aircraft.
Until investigators reconstruct those moments, the deafening bang that frightened Igbokoda remains part of the mystery surrounding the crash — a sound powerful enough to empty streets, close markets and send frightened parents racing to bring their children home.
