Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru was among eleven people killed on Friday, 21 May 2021, when a Nigerian Air Force Beechcraft King Air 350 aircraft crashed while attempting to land at Kaduna Airport in bad weather.
The Nigerian Air Force said the aircraft was carrying the army chief and members of his entourage from Abuja when it went down on approach. Seven people, including two crew members, survived the crash and were taken to hospital, while General Attahiru and ten others died at the scene.
Investigation Opened
The Air Force said an investigation board was immediately constituted to determine the cause of the crash, with poor visibility linked to bad weather cited as a likely contributing factor pending the full inquiry. President Muhammadu Buhari, who had appointed General Attahiru to the role only weeks earlier, described the loss as a devastating blow to the military.
The crash renewed public scrutiny of the Nigerian military's ageing aircraft fleet and prompted calls in the National Assembly for an accelerated review of maintenance standards and pilot training across the armed forces' air wings.
