Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has set up an investigation panel headed by an Air Vice Marshal to probe the crash of a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Dornier-228 aircraft this morning in Kaduna. The panel is “to unravel the cause of the accident with immediate effect,” Director of Public Relations & Information, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, said.

Alonge disclosed in a statement issued this afternoon in Abuja that Air Marshal Abubakar has aborted his official trip to Port Harcourt to visit the site of the air crash and families of some of the deceased personnel. He said the Chief of Air Staff did this in company of the Air Officer Commanding Training Command, Air Vice Marshal Alikali Mamu.

News Express reports that the helicopter, with call sign NAF030, crashed into a house at Ribadu Cantonment, Kaduna. Though no casualty was recorded on ground, there were no survivors among the seven passengers onboard the aircraft.

The aircraft was Abuja-bound and had taken-off at about 6:45 a.m. from the Kaduna Military Airfield before the mishap. Bodies of the passengers have been recovered and fire fighters mobilised to the crash site to curtail fire from spreading to other buildings within the vicinity.