A close family friend of Feyi, son of late Chief Agagu, who is one of the survivors of the ill fated Associated Airlines flight, told Vanguard that he (Feyi) was initially reluctant to enter the plane after seeing how old it looked. (The exact plane pictured right). He and others survived basically by sitting at the back of the plane. Below is what a family insider Feyi spoke to said;
“The young man said that once they got to the tarmac before boarding and once he sighted the plane, what struck him was the seemingly very old look of the plane. Feyi said he didn’t like the looks of the plane. He also said but for the importance and significance of the trip, his inner sense didn’t feel comfortable boarding the plane.
"In fact, Feyi said he told another survivor, Femi Akinsanya, that the plane looked too old and he didn’t feel like boarding. But Feyi said he was told not to get himself worked up needlessly since this was not going to be his first time aboard a plane neither would this be the first old-looking plane that he would board. That was how he said he boarded the plane”.
“Feyi recounted how he and Femi Akinsanya boarded the plane and moved straight to the back end to take up seats. Why Feyi chose the back seat”, the source said, “was more a function of his state of mind about the state of the plane rather than a preference for taking a back seat.
“When they sat down, Feyi told me that he and Femi simply prayed that they should just take off and land safely, oblivious of what lay ahead of them. “Feyi said once they took off, everything happened so fast. What he also told me was that both he and Femi noticed what looked like a crack not far from where they sat at the rear end of the plane
“He said everything happened so fast that by the time the plane crashed on the ground, it was that crack that had been noticed earlier that transformed into a gapping exit point upon impact on the ground.
“Feyi said the exit point created was where he and Femi escaped through”.
Another source further revealed that most of the survivors of the crash appeared to be those seated at the rear end of the plane.
Though 23years old, the plane, according to Balami David, the President of the National Association of Pilots and Engineers, during a television interview, reportedly operated some days before the ill-fated flight.
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