Ondo military plane crash: NAF recovers cockpit voice recorder of ATR-42 that killed 25

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it has recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the military aircraft that crashed in Ondo State last month, killing all 25 people on board.

The ATR-42 plane came down on 5 October while on a routine flight from Benin City to Lagos. It broke in two and plunged into swampland close to a naval base in Igbokoda, with the main part of the aircraft sinking into water around 30 metres deep.

In a statement, the NAF's Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, said technical teams from the Air Force and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) had confirmed that the voice recorder was intact. Part of the flight data recorder has also been found, and divers are still searching for the rest, along with more wreckage, engine parts and human remains.

The two recorders, often called black boxes, store conversations in the cockpit and technical information about the flight, and are vital in finding out why a plane crashed.

Ejodame said the work was continuing in difficult swamp conditions. The Air Force said it was keeping in touch with the families of the victims, responding to the host community's concerns about the environment, and working to identify the remains.