Dana coroner: Plane examined for 12 mins before flight – Witness

[MrVan]

By SOLA OGUNDIPE, ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, CHIOMA OBINNA, ONOZURE DANIA & MICHAEL OLADEPO

LAGOS—A maintenance officer with Dana Airline, Lawrence Edekome, yesterday, told a Lagos coroner that he carried out a 12 minutescheck on  the ill-fated Dana aircraft before it took off from Abuja to Lagos on the aborted trip.

dekome, who came to shed light on the maintenance schedule of the crashed aircraft before Coroner Oyetade Komolafe, especially on its trip from Abuja to Lagos, said it underwent a check before its final departure to Lagos, where the engines were certified okay to embark on the journey.

He said  he left Lagos to Abuja with the ill-fated plane, from where he carried out a last check to give a clearance for the Lagos journey.

Though, he said he didn't join the return trip after the check because he was expected to return to Lagos in the afternoon of the following day from where he went to relieve another technical crew.

Speaking on his routine check on the craft before it took off  and how they record whatever they observe as error, he said, " whatever is seen in the aircraft is what is recorded in the technical log book."

On the time he took to carry out the check, Edekome told the Coroner Judge, "I arrived Abuja around 2pm and I went straight to my office to drop my luggage and came back 25 minutes later to inspect the aircraft for 12 minutes."

The witness when taken up by lawyers said he did not qualify as an engineer but was a technician but he undertook necessary training to handle aircraft maintenance and is recognised across the world.

Meantime, management  of Lekan Ogunsola Memorial Mortuary of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, TOS Funerals, has assured the family of the late Mr George Moses, retired Assistant Comptroller of Fire Service, who was involved in the Dana plane crash of June 3, that his alleged missing body will be found and released to them today if the necessary documents for collection were provided.

Vanguard Nigeria