Why we allowed younger pilots to fly Army chief, others –NAF

  Why we allowed younger pilots to fly Army chief, others –NAF

Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao

Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao

• Crashed Beechcraft plane newly acquired in 2015

The Nigerian Air Force has said the capability of its pilots should not be called into question despite the recent NAF plane crashes, including last Friday’s crash which killed the Chief of Army Staff Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 other military officers.

Last Friday, a NAF Beechcraft  King Air 350i had crashed at the Kaduna civil airport, after the pilot diverted from the military airport due to bad weather.

It was the second time that a NAF Beechcraft  King Air 350i would crash this year and was also one of the worst military plane crashes in NAF history.

Due to the severity of the crash, a cross-section of Nigerians questioned why senior and more experienced pilots, such as Squadron Leaders or Wing Commanders, were not being deployed to fly dignitaries such as the COAS and top generals.

But the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore, Edward Gabkwet, said the flight captain who flew the ill-fated military plane, Taiwo Asaniyi, was a Flying Lieutenant with thousands of flying hours.

He said the late pilot and some of his colleagues, including the pilot who flies the President, had been flying since they were cadets at the Nigerian Defence Academy.

Gabkwet stressed that the pilots’ qualifications and capabilities should never be called into question, adding that most of them had flown more hours than even many seniors.

He said, “On people saying a senior ranking officer should have flown the Chief of Army Staff and others, people don’t know him (the captain of the crashed plane). He and the pilot flying the President are both Flight Lieutenants. He flew more hours than some of us. He had been flying since his time at the Nigerian Defence Academy. He started flying as a cadet.

“As a captain on the Beechcraft, he had flown 2,450 hours, which was in 2019. So he would have flown nothing less than 5,000 hours since his cadet days. He had been flying the COAS and other VVIPs on that same Beechcraft. He was 29 years old. Because he had an accident doesn’t mean he didn’t have experience.

“He travelled every year for retraining. Our training involves a partnership with the manufacturers of the planes. It is rigorous; it’s not something taken with levity.”