Ex- Minister’s pilot- daughter, 11 others die in plane crash in Cameroon

FORMER Minister of State for FCT, Senator Solomon Ewuga’s daughter, Adzuayi Ewuga, a female pilot, has died in a plane crash in Central Cameroon. The deceased pilot is the second daughter of Senator Solomon, a stalwart of the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) in Nasarawa State.

According to reports, the pilot, who died in a mini- aircraft belonging to Caverton Aviation Cameroon, had 11 passengers on board.

Local media reports that the aircraft was flying from Yaounde Nsimalen Airport to Belabo, in the east of the country when air traffic services lost radio contact.

A major storm hit Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, in the afternoon of Wednesday, causing the plane to lose signal after it took off from the city’s Nsimalen airport.

This was confirmed by Cameroon’s Transport Minister, Ernest Ngalle Bibehe, in a statement that air traffic control lost contact with the plane.

The statement partly read, “Air traffic controllers lost radio contact with the aircraft” which was later “located in the forest” near Nanga Eboko, around 150 kilometres ( 90 miles) northeast of the capital Yaounde.”

Meanwhile, It is said to be unlikely that any of the 11 survived after the plane went down near Nanga Eboko, Centre Province in Cameroon. According to state radio CRTV on Thursday, “all perished in the disaster on Wednesday.”

A transport ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP: “There were no survivors.”

The plane had been chartered by a firm, Cameroon Oil Transportation Company, which maintains a hydrocarbon pipeline running to neighbouring Chad, official sources told AFP.