October 29, 2006, three women emerged from the ruins of the ADC Airline’s Boeing 737-2B7 aircraft. Together, they ambled through the mangled cabin, mindful of the litter of corpses and spurts of fire, remnants of the Aviation Development Company Airlines (ADC) Flight 053. Its innards strewn across a maize farm, the aircraft splayed like a vastly flattened purgatory; 100 passengers and five cabin crew mauled within its confines, like Gothic platitudes slipshodly carved into the burning tragedy.
An eerie and indiscriminate crackle seemed to desecrate its flaming tomb;
They wandered through the ruins, like a company of accidental shadows, their hard noises pirouetting across the scene, drifting back and forth, in a grisly tenor.
Few minutes earlier, they shouldered each other in a forced but passionate recoil from the fangs of death. One of the trio was 24-year-old Esther Olamide Jeyibo (now Omojafor). And her recollection of the incident was searing.
Speaking exclusively to The Nation, she said, soon after takeoff, the aircraft took a turn and stabilized, then it descended abruptly. In that instant, a flash of lightning and an eerie thump of thunder lacerated the morning sky, frightening the 24-year-old and fellow travellers.
Omojafor completely lost her wits the moment the aircraft started to heave in an awkward manner. Through the tumult, her eyes scanned the aircraft in fear; its harassed angles rose and plummeted, like a violent picture-puzzle hiding a story that only death could reveal.
“There was panic, then we started to face down, I saw the seat belt lights flick on, I still see the images when I close my eyes, I saw the cockpit door fling open. At some point, I felt it was turbulence and it would settle, but it didn’t. My seat was at the back, so I saw the front row descend, people were screaming, I remember clenching my seat handle, shouting ‘Blood of Jesus! Holy Ghost fire!’ Then I blacked out,” said Omojafor.
When she regained consciousness, the plane had crashed to earth, static. Everywhere was dark, silent. But she was still strapped to her seat. Her head was bent. The cabin luggage hold was open and a piece of hand luggage had fallen on her back, forcing her to slouch. She screamed: ‘Is anyone there, can somebody hear me?’ But there was no response.
She said, “I tried to unbuckle my seat belt but I couldn’t do it, I remembered that Esther Kemmer-Amoda (now Longe), a fellow corps member, was seated beside me during the flight. I called out her name; when she responded, I remembered what I needed to do was to lift the seat belt buckle lid to free myself, then, I asked Amoda to assist with the luggage on my back. We walked out of the only part of the aircraft that was still intact.”
Her seatmate, Kemmer-Amoda (now Longe), eventually answered her; like Omojafor, she was air-bound for Sokoto State in continuation of their mandatory National Youth Services Corps (NYSC) programme.
Omojafor and Longe walked out of the aircraft at the risk of getting burned in a few minor explosions sprouting across the scene of the mishap.
“While we stood by the debris, I saw that Esther (Longe) still had her handbag in her hand, then I remembered, I also had a handbag during the flight. I went back into the aircraft to search for mine. I went into the only part of the plane that was still intact, where we sat. My bag wasn’t there. I came out, looked around, and asked Longe to keep watch and alert me if the fire burned too close. I went inside again but checked the direction opposite where we sat and found my bag. I picked my slippers from underneath my seat, held them tight to my chest, walking bare feet.
“I was in shock. On my way out, I saw Longe trying to pull someone up. There was a seat on top of her. I helped lift the seat and the lady trapped under got up and became the third person standing.”
Subsequently, she removed her phone from her handbag and called her dad. “I said, ‘Daddy, Daddy, the plane has crashed!’ My Dad went silent for a few minutes and responded, ‘Are you okay?’ I said ‘Yes,’ and he said ‘How is your leg, your hand?’ I said, ‘I am fine and he said, “Are you alone? Who is there with you?’ I said, ‘Esther is here, she joined the flight from Abuja.’
Then he said, a plane crash is a national issue, and that we would get help soon. He advised me to move away from the aircraft to ensure my safety.
While walking away, I dialed several people’s phone numbers, some I knew were on board the flight but there was no response.
“We met some villagers on our way from the scene. They tried to check us, but we told them, we were fine, and that there were other people at the site of the incident that needed help. Along the way, we met an ambulance that took us to the hospital at the airport, Flying Officer Stella, from the NAF base Abuja, came to get me, then we went to the National Hospital Abuja, where we received treatment. All casualties and survivors of the incident were taken to the National Hospital Abuja.”
According to her, the full import of the disaster dawned on her while they were at the National Hospital in Abuja. “The enormity of it all dawned on me as I watched them wheel dead bodies in from the scene of the mishap,” said Omojafor.
Until then, it was just the three of them, who walked out of the mangled aircraft initially. According to Omojafor, she wouldn’t have been part of the tragedy. She said, “I didn’t have to be on that flight. Although I was a ticketing staff of ADC Airline at the time, my return ticket was not confirmed before I left Sokoto, my Dad ensured I went to the ADC office during the week to confirm my return date. I was feeling really ill, but, I had to obey. My parents took me to the airport that morning, I was told the flight was full and there was no seat for me (I was placed on request, Rq1). I reached out to my office in Sokoto to intervene and I was asked to see the Deputy Airline Manager in Lagos, who told me not to worry that I will get a seat because most of the time, people buy tickets and don’t make the flight.
“I called Gbenga (a friend and cabin crew who came with the Aircraft from the base), he asked me to come to the Tarmac. On my way, I met Mr. Johnny (a passenger, deceased) I greeted him, we joked. I checked in my luggage, met the Macivers (passengers, deceased) at the waiting area, we had a chat then I went to see Gbenga, who took me to the Lead crew, Kanu (deceased) at the foot of the Aircraft, to assist. He asked me to just go straight to the back of the Aircraft and wait. I met Peter (a friend, cabin crew, survivor) there, we had a chat, then he said, sit here (seat 19E), Ahmed(a passenger) boarded and sat on 19D, then, the journey began. It was a smooth flight from Lagos to Abuja. Ahmed and some passengers alighted at Abuja and other passengers boarded. I switched seats, to 19D, saw Esther (Longe) and called her to join me at the back, she sat on 19E.”
The ill-fated aircraft took off from the domestic wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, where it had stopped in transit from Lagos. But about two kilometres into take-off at 11:30 a.m, from Abuja, the Boeing 737 aircraft, with registration number 5N-BFK, came down at Tunda Madaki Village, close to the airport.
Debris from the shattered plane was strewn over a corn farm the size of a soccer field about two miles from the end of the runway.
The pilot reportedly ran into a thunderstorm on take-off. Although it had three and a half hours of fuel endurance, the impact of the thunderstorm ignited a fire which made it burst into flames.
Ninety-six people died among the 100 passengers and five crew members. Muhammadu Maccido, the Sultan of Sokoto and spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslims, the sultan’s son, Senator Badamasi Maccido, Dr Nnennia Mgbor, the first-ever female West African ENT surgeon, and Abdulrahman Shehu Shagari, son of the former president Shehu Shagari, were on the passenger list. In the end, nine people survived, including the three daughters of the then governor of Kogi State, Ibrahim Idris.
Looking back, Omojafor considers herself extremely lucky to have made it out of the aircraft alive. According to her, she was favoured by divine grace from God to be one of the nine survivors out of 105 travellers.
Initially, when she received a posting for her NYSC programme and discovered that she had been posted to Sokoto State, she was apprehensive.
She said, “I was scared to travel as far as Sokoto for national service. But my brother, who was then in the military urged me to give it a try. He said I had never been outside of Lagos and that it was an opportunity for me to know the country. Surprisingly, I loved serving in Sokoto. I enjoyed the environment while I was there. It was calm. It was free. At some point in my service year, I considered staying back in Sokoto at the completion of my national service.”
The disaster, however, changed her perspective about staying back, after her national service, to live and work in Sokoto. Among other things, she developed a phobia for flying.
Omojafor recalled that fresh from her air mishap, she had to fly in the company of her brother, now late, Flt. Lt. Odafe Jeyibo, who flew into Abuja from Benin to be with her at the hospital.
“We had to fly back to Lagos on Aero Contractors two days after the crash, and it was one of the scariest flights of my life. The flight was smooth to Lagos but, I was so scared. A few days before the crash, before I came into Lagos for the Sallah holiday, that year,
my brother Christopher called me in Sokoto, told me he got a message from a close family friend (Prophet Oladele Joseph, CPPC Ogba), that I needed to fast and pray for three days so that no evil will befall me. Those that know me well, know my relationship with food, but I tried, I prayed and fasted for three days, breaking at noon daily, not knowing the fate that was about to befall me.”
In the days that followed after the incident, every time she closed her eyes, all she saw was burning fire. “I saw fire dropping from the sky, and an aircraft dropping from the sky,” she said.
Afterward, she avoided air travel to her base in Sokoto. On subsequent trips, she travelled by road, not minding its insecurity and rigours.
It hardly dawned on her that her fear of air travel was intense until she met the Managing Director (MD) of Virgin Nigeria in 2007. “He asked me if I had flown since the plane crash and I said ‘no.’ He said I ought to do that and that he was there to assist me when I am ready. At that point, I realised that I hadn’t treated myself for the trauma suffered from the air disaster. That was when I decided to go back to the hospital for psychological evaluation. I enrolled in mental health therapy in April 2007. After about three months of therapy, I decided to fly in a plane again. I called the MD of Virgin Nigeria and told him I was ready to board an aircraft again. And he encouraged me.
They got me a ticket, and I flew to Abuja to stay two days with a friend. That was in September 2007,” she said.
On August 22, 2008, she took another trip to Paris, in France thus stifling her phobia for air travel decisively. Subsequently, she has embarked on numerous flights. “I make sure I travel by air, at least once in a year,” said Omojafor.
Reacting to a video made by a fellow survivor, that went viral earlier this year, about the air mishap of October 29, 2006, Omojafor stressed that some contents of the video were exaggerated and misrepresented. Contrary to the claims of the narrator, she said, the aircraft did not fling her off her seat to anywhere else on the plane during the crash.
“After the crash, I was still on my seat, strapped in my seat belt, my head was bent downwards, I was right there, beside Esther (Longe). My hip was never dislocated. Scientifically, anyone with a dislocated hip will not be able to walk and I walked out of the scene of the incident. We assisted a lady to her feet who became the third person to walk out of the incident.
No one made it out of that incident unscathed but we are very grateful to God for healing and the gift of life,” she said.
The Manager, ECommerce and Social Media for Consumer and High Net Worth Clients for Stanbic IBTC Bank has since devoted her life to humanitarian work. According to her, coming face to face with death changed her.
She said, “Before the air crash, I was very fashion-conscious. For instance, I was very much into the Black Opal cosmetic line. Everything I used was a product of the brand. I was smitten with it.”
But being caught in a flailing plane as it crashed to earth changed her in no small measure. Among other things, it rid Omojafor of her enthrallment with the Black Opal cosmetic line and imbued her with a fascination with the things that actually matter.
She said, “I realised that if I had died, nothing would have become of my love for the cosmetic line. Facing death taught me to appreciate the things that really matter.”
And what are those things that matter? Generosity. Humility. And the fear of God. Omojafor revealed that soon after the incident, she realised that dead bodies don’t wear Black Opal.
As her plane crashed, her mind was vacant of collagen and face powdering tips. It was filled with the fear of death and a struggle to live.