Thank
God for his life!
The son of the former Inspector
General of Police Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, Mr. Jamil who was allegedly
involved in a plane crash on the 10th of May 2014, in Niger Republic has recounted
his experience. The IRS pilot in an interview with YES International Magazine tells
the story of his near death experience when he was involved in the plane crash.
Read the story below…
Oh! It will be nice to tell the
story about the accident. But the thing is that I don’t want to disturb the
investigation that is going on now. I will give you a few insights about the
experience I faced during the whole accident. We left Bratislava in Slovakia.
It is close to Austria. I think it is about 45 minute’s drive from Vietnam. We
left on the 10th of May, 2014.
We took off about 10am or 9am.
Sorry, I go blank sometimes. I cannot remember some details about what
happened. We had some malfunction, which we noticed. Tokunbo, I cannot believe
that I still find it difficult to remember everything.
I knew when we got to between
Niger and Nigeria; to get into Sokoto. I think before Kano. That was when we
realized that we had problem. But unfortunately, we did not see any airport in
Kano. And the thing that came to Captain Monye’s mind was a certain river that
he had never seen before and he was like I have never seen this river before.
He told me and I said are you sure? I was like what! I’ve never gone that route
before.
That was my first time on that
route and it’s about 6 hours 30 minutes and Captain Monye had gone that route
for almost twelve years. So, he was very familiar with that route. That was not
his first flight. He has done lots; almost all the planes by IRS are done by
him. So, when he said I don’t know where this river was, in my mind, I was like
yeah! I don’t know where we are.
Captain Monye confirmed to me he
did not know this place. We are done, we are finished! In my mind, I said to
him, Skip, are you sure you wanna look again? Then I started calling names of
rivers that I know in Kano. Is this Triga dam, he said no. Triga dam is not
like this; he described how Triga dam is. So, any way, we now decided to do
what we can do to save our lives and the aircraft. Just like I told you, I
really love to explain everything that happened, but I can’t because of the
ongoing investigation. I don’t wanna jeopardize whatever it is and what they
are actually doing. I really like to read about the investigation myself
because I want to know what actually happened. So, you are basically missing
most of the story.
That is the truth. So, I said to
him I think we have 45 minutes or so; I said to him, Skip, let’s do an
emergency landing. He said to me, no, don’t worry, we will find a field to land
or we will find the nearest airport to land. I was like okay; so we kept
flying. 50 minutes or so. I said Skip, let’s do an emergency landing. He said
no, we will find a field to land. I said to him, Skip, we are going to die and
he said we are not going to die. Then, he left me in the flying deck. He told
me then that I was flying. He left, then he came back. When he came back, I
said to him, Skip, I’ve been trying to contact Sokoto and Kano, but I could
not. Only him had radio and I cannot talk to anybody else. He kept talking to
Kano. He was telling them everything and for about 15 minutes or so. He told me
he was going to be back again.
When he left, I didn’t see him
for about five minutes. I was like, if this guy does not come back in the next
five minutes, I am going to do this landing myself. When he came back, I said
Skip, let us land and he said we are going to find a field. I started looking
outside because my eyes are good. Even before we realized anything was
happening, we were coming down. He said to me, Jamil, you know your eyes are
very good, I want you to start looking for a field.
So, I was looking. I didn’t see
anything. When we realized that field was really not there, he said to me I
want you to keep looking outside and let me know what you see. I kept looking;
I couldn’t see any. Anyway, when he left and I didn’t see him, I decided by
myself that in the next 5 minutes if this guy doesn’t come back, I am going to
do the landing. He came back. When he came back, first thing he said to me was
time for us to make a decision. I said now you are talking to me, Skip. Then,
he went to where we were going to land. You know I was looking outside and I
found the field that I wanted us to land. I said to him, that is the field we are
going to land.
He said are you sure? I was like
yes; Skip, I like that field; that is where we are going to land. We now did
the whole procedure. We did everything that we were supposed to do. I chose the
field. Serious challenges. We landed. As we touched the floor, the plane hit…
There is a heap of sand on the field. Of course, it’s a rice farm. The nose of
the plane hit the heap of sand, broke off. As it broke off, then it busted.
Then, it also broke the flap. All the flaps on the wings were broken. The
landing gear came off and it busted the No. 2 engine. The plane now turned to
the left. There was a big river in front of us. We were shifting to the left
side. Now, everything I am telling you, I had no seatbelt on. Because during
our trouble shoot, I had to stand up to check the panel behind to see if there
is any problem. I went back to put on all my phones and I heard nothing; no
signal, no service. Then, MTN was telling me contact your service provider,
your roaming has been blocked, contact your service provider. So, I couldn’t do
anything, I could not make call, I could not go on internet. If we could go on
internet, I would have seen a map that will show us exactly where we were. We
were literally lost; we didn’t know where we were. We actually shifted to the
left side. The arm of the chair was actually what held me. If not, I definitely
would have jumped. So, when the plane finally stopped, I opened the window and
I dashed out.
When I dashed out, I thought I saw him by my
side. But he was not by my side. He was still inside the plane. He tried to
open his own window, but the handle broke. He couldn’t come out from his
window. He had to come out from my own window. When I stopped and I turned
around, I wanted to jump into the river that was in front of us. We were so
lucky that God was with us; that the plane actually turned to the side. The
nose and the flaps got broken. If not, we would have fallen into the river and
the river is very deep. I think the river is from River Niger.
When we landed, the engine was
still running. It sounded so hard as if the plane was going to blow. I saw Skip
coming out from my window. He landed on his head, then I ran to him. Then, I
give him a hug. He cannot even remember. But the truth is that he was so calm
inside the flight. We were so calm. Of course, I made up my mind when I went to
the bathroom to pee. I was like God, this is the worst that can happen; death!
There is nothing more. And there is no need to panic. When we came back, we
were very calm. God’s grace; that is the only thing that saved our lives. We
didn’t panic about anything. All the decision we made was on point.
Everything just went exactly how
it was supposed to go. That was the first time in my life that I heard every
warning that I used to hear on the scene when doing stimulation, to see how we
can remember emergency procedures. That was the first time in my life that I
had seen everything come to reality. That was facing a real life situation
scenario or circumstance, whichever one you choose. It was like a dream, but it
was a reality. It is just that there was no pain. I was literally feeling numb.
I didn’t have any emotional expression. I can’t describe how I was feeling. I
don’t know if I was feeling sad or happy or angry. Actually, I didn’t know what
I was feeling. I was just there. It was just a surprise to me. So, the plane
stopped. I saw Skip.
We made a decision to go back to
the plane and switch the engine off, so it doesn’t blow. And even if the plane
blows, the village will be safe. Of course, we landed close to civilization. I
told Skip it is better we land close to civilization so that if anything happens,
at least, people will see us instead of landing somewhere else. Anyway, the
villagers started coming. The first set of villagers came; when they came, I
said to them help. I was outside of the plane now. Skip went back to do a
drill. There is a drill we normally do. I was like where is this state? They
said this is Kwasi Bosso in Bosso. The name of the state is Bosso. The name of
the village is Kwasi Bosso. No electricity; they don’t have anything.
Culled: YES International
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