Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145

Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145

Accident summary
Date	10 December 2005 (2005-12-10)
Type	Possible weather-related crash
Site	Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Passengers	105
Crew	5
Injuries	2
Fatalities	108
Survivors	2
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32[1]
Operator	Sosoliso Airlines
Tail number	YU-AJH
Flight origin	Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Nigeria
Destination	Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

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Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 was a scheduled flight between the Nigerian cities of Abuja (ABV) and Port Harcourt (PHC). At about 14:08 local time (13:08 UTC) on 10 December 2005, Flight 1145 from Abuja crash-landed on the runway at Port Harcourt International Airport. The plane, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with 110 people on board, burst into flames. Immediately after the crash, seven survivors were recovered and taken to hospitals, but it has since been reported that four of those survivors have died in hospital care, leaving three survivors, two of whom were flown to South Africa. In the end, two people survived.^[2]

Loyola Jesuit College and Flight 1145

At first Loyola Jesuit College students from Port Harcourt travelled between school and their homes via buses using the roads. Rising crime along roads the 1990s made parents believe that road travel was too dangerous. In 2001, when Sosoliso Airlines began services between Port Harcourt and Abuja parents placed their children on the flights.^[2]

The flight

The captain was Benjamin Adekunle Adebayo, a Nigerian. The first officer was Gerad Yakubu Andan, a Ghananian.^[3]

According to the airline's website, Sosoliso Airlines operated one MD-81 and three DC-9 airplanes, though it acquired an MD-82 during the last week of November.^{[citation needed]} The crashed DC-9 was acquired from JAT Airways.^[4] This is the first accident for the airline.^{[citation needed]}

Passengers and crew

2 passengers survived with serious injuries. 7 crew members and 101 passengers ultimately died. No people received minor or no injuries.^[5]

Among the passengers were about sixty one secondary school students from a school in the Federal Capital Territory region of Nigeria called Loyola Jesuit College.^[6] Many passengers survived the initial impact and died in the resulting fire. Port Harcourt Airport had one fire truck and no ambulances.^[7]

Of seven people who survived initially, six died in the following days.^[8] On 11 December, four of the people who survived the initial impact and remained alive, including Bimbo Odukoya,^[9] died, leaving three remaining survivors^[10] As of 11:35 P.M. EST on 13 December 2005 CNN incorrectly stated that one survivor remained.^[11] As of 29 October 2006, CNN incorrectly stated that there were 108 passengers and that all of them died.^[12] On the same day the Associated Press stated that 107 passengers were killed.^[13] One survivor, Kechi Okwuchi, was treated in Milpark Hospital at Johannesburg, South Africa as of 14 December 2005 ^[14] and at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston, Texas, United States as of 6 September 2007.^[15]

Legacy

Andy and Ify Ilabor, the parents of crash victims Chuka, Nkem, and Busonma "Buso" Ilabor, started a foundation called the Ilabor Angels to assist orphans and AIDS victims.^[7]

Loyola Jesuit dedicated a Memorial Hall to the dead students.^[7]

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) mandates that each family of an air crash victim is entitled to $100,000 United States dollars from the airline. In January 2009 Dr. Harold Demuren, the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said that the families of the air crash victims would be compensated and that Sosoliso had already paid 2.3 million U.S. dollars into an escrow account to compensate the families.^[16]

Notes

1. ^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
2. ^ ^{a b} ""Nightmare in Nigeria: How Blunders and Neglect Stoked an African Air Tragedy". The Wall Street Journal. 1 October 2007. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.travel.air/2007-10/msg00008.html. Retrieved 10 January 2009. 
3. ^ Nigerian Federal Ministry of Aviation's Investigation Report FMA AIPB 424: DC93 LOC Port Harcourt 2005. 5 (5/45). Retrieved on 8 September 2010.
4. ^ Nigerian Federal Ministry of Aviation's Investigation Report FMA AIPB 424: DC93 LOC Port Harcourt 2005. 4/45. Retrieved on 8 September 2010.
5. ^ Nigerian Federal Ministry of Aviation's Investigation Report FMA AIPB 424: DC93 LOC Port Harcourt 2005. 8 (8/45). Retrieved on 8 September 2010.
6. ^ "Nigeria plane crash kills 103." Reuters at Yahoo!. Retrieved on 8 September 2010.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Africa's Airline Casualties on YouTube^{[dead link]} - The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 17 November 2007.
8. ^ Nigeria grounds two airlines CNN December 13, 2005
9. ^ "Its an Act of God, Says Pastor Bimbo’s Mother," Online Nigeria Daily News
10. ^ "Casualty figure in Nigerian plane crash increases to 107... Pastor Bimbo Odukoya among the dead," Online Nigeria Daily News
11. ^ "Nigeria grounds two airlines," CNN. Tuesday 13 December 2005. Retrieved on 8 September 2010.
12. ^ "Muslim leader among those killed in Nigerian plane crash." CNN. 29 October 2006. Retrieved on 8 September 2010.
13. ^ "Nigerian Jet Crashes With 104 Aboard," Associated Press, posted by KYW-TV
14. ^ Oni-Olusola, Gbenga. "Crash Survivor in S/African Hospital, Mother Speaks." This Day. 14 December 2005. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
15. ^ "Enter the Den 2007-2008,"^{[dead link]} Loyola Jesuit College
16. ^ Kenneth Ehigiator. "Nigeria: ADC Airline Owners Face Arrest." Lagos:AllAfrica.com. 1 January 2009. Retrieved on 10 September 2010.

References

	Nigeria portal
	Aviation portal
	Disasters portal

• "Jet crashes in flames in Nigeria". Associated Press. December 10, 2005. http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/12/10/nigeria.crash.ap/index.html. 
• "Nigeria jet crash leaves 103 dead". BBC News. December 10, 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4517024.stm. 
• "Toll rises in Nigerian air crash". Agence France-Presse. December 10, 2005. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5A0D666A-6AE0-4BE9-A705-B0BA7A402B09.htm. 
• "Nigerian plane crash kills 103: official". Reuters. December 10, 2005. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=fundLaunches&storyID=2005-12-10T180017Z_01_MOL056160_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRASH-NIGERIA.xml. 
• "As Death Stalks a Nation’s Air Space... 103 Die in P/Harcourt Crash". This Day. December 10, 2005. http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=35425. 
• "Plane 'struck by lightning'". News24. December 10, 2005. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1848938,00.html. 
• "At least 103 dead in jet crash". News Corporation. December 11, 2005. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17531085-2,00.html. 

External links

External images
	Picture of the aircraft while still flying for Serbian Airline JAT - Registration YU-AJH

• Investigation Report FMA AIPB 424: DC93 LOC Port Harcourt 2005 - Nigerian Federal Ministry of Aviation (Archive)
• Passenger manifest
• "NATURAL DISASTER CAUSE OF SOSOLISO CRASH." Sosoliso Airlines. 21 April 2006.
• Statement on Sosoliso Airlines Crash. Boeing (Archive)

Coordinates: 4°47′N 7°00′E / 4.783°N 7°E / 4.783; 7