Nigerian Government Scales Down Search Operation
"HAVING searched for the missing plane in vain for six days, the Federal Government is now considering scaling down the search operations by reducing the number of helicopters deployed for the purpose.
Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), AVM Maigari Audu Bida (rtd), told journalists yesterday that the missing plane was yet to be found and that the six helicopters deployed in the search would be reduced to one.
According to him, all but one of the helicopters belonged to private companies and were brought in to assist the Federal Government in the efforts to locate the plane. The only NEMA helicopter, he said, would continue with the search, just as the ground search party would intensify it operations.
Responding to a question on whether the agency had a time frame to search operation, the D-G said: “We don’t give up searching for an aircraft that is missing like this case because lives are involved and property are involved.
“What we do is that we could downgrade the number of people and the number of assets we assign to it. Like by tomorrow, we are thinking probably we could reduce the effort, we will leave the NEMA.
Meanwhile, the independent helicopters, we will tell them to go back to their companies because they are there for making money and we have taken about four days out of their time and we feel that since we have the ground search party, the ground search party would continue and our helicopter will continue.
“Whenever we have any information that something is happening anywhere, our helicopter can go there. But the other helicopters, we will tell them to go back to their companies by tomorrow,” he said.
According to him, most of the services of the helicopters were provided free to the Federal Government but the agency had to bear the cost of fuelling and crew amenities. He explained that most of them came on humanitarian grounds.
AVM Audu Bida said the search had been very difficult because of the the terrain which he described as mountainous and thick mangrove forests.
“So far, we have not located the missing aircraft but the last aircraft for search today (yesterday) landed in Calabar and we are looking at the possibility of the ground search party continuing the exercise tomorrow (today).
“The area where we are searching around Obudu is a very mountainous and you have some areas that have high mangrove forests. So, if an aircraft falls in there, you hardly can detect it. And the mountainous nature of the area makes it very dangerous for aircraft operations. So, people that are asking that up till now we have not seen the aircraft.
It is a very difficult terrain and it is not an easy place. It is not a low land nor flat land. You have a lot of mountain ranges and just by the side you have mangrove forest.
“You have trees that measure up to 300 feet in height and anything that goes under it probably you may not be able to locate it,” he said.
The search, he said, had led to the combing of Cross River State, Benue State, Ebonyi State, Enugu State, the Eastern borders and the mountains around it, adding: “I am just telling you all this to show you the efforts we have put in so that people who are asking questions would know how much efforts we have put in and are still putting in.”
The ground search party include officers of the police, Civil Defence, SSS, Cross State government officials, Cameroonians Search and Rescue officials, and volunteer members of the public."