pavoda:
The pilots assigned to fly the president are part of the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF). Its pilots are very experienced, high ranking officers. Typically, they hold the rank of a Wing Commander or Group Captain, a position which requires at least 22 years of service in the NAF, if not more.The question remain valid, why two pilots of similar experience were assigned to fly that number of Military Generals? Even civil aviation would not allow such young pilots CAPTAIN a plane. Similar conditions to that of the PAF should have been applied. Considering that majority of air mishaps are pilot error before mechanical a more experienced Captain and a co-pilot with one of the Flight Lieutenant may have made a difference.

Wing commander is even less a rank than air commodore. It is equivalent to a lieutenant colonel in the army, while flight lieutenant is equivalent to a captain. Same rank as Umar. So he is still saying nonsense.
Besides, where did you get it that Wing commander requires 22years? It negates that of Umar who claims it takes 20 years to attain an equivalent rank of a General. Who is confusing who?

pavoda:
COAS: Why Would A Flight Lieutenant Fly A Lieutenant General? They're Baby Pilots - Captain Umar

Some Nigerians are still reacting to the death of Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Attahiru Ibrahim and 10 other military officers who died in a Kaduna plane crash. African Independent Television, AIT today interviewed a former military intelligence officer, Captain Umar Babangida and it was all about what could have led to the Kaduna military plane crash that killed General Attahiru Ibrahim and 10 other military officers.

Captain Umar said that the pilot who flew General Attahiru Ibrahim was just a flight Lieutenant asking why a Flight Lieutenant will fly a Lieutenant General. According to him, Flight Lieutenant are just baby pilots. Captain Umar said that his classmate who flew a plane to Kaduna State same time the plane of COAS crashed landed safely. He went further to state that his classmate told them that the weather that day was bad to the extent that the atmosphere was red with dust.

He stated that his pilot classmate works for an international airline adding that he told them that he needed all the experience he had gathered since he started flying to land safely.

According to him, his classmate told them he knew he couldn't take off again till further notice due to the bad weather. Captain Umar said his colleague and classmate who is also a former Nigerian Airforce officer has been flying for 20 years.

He said that anyone in the Nigerian Airforce with 20 years of service should be a General. He added that it's obvious that all flying Lieutenants went to flying school but one has to build on what he has learned. He said that the older one gets in the job of flying, the more experience he will acquire to handle challenging situations that occur when flying.

He said that he doesn't believe that Nigeria lacks experience pilots to fly someone like a Lieutenant General. It could be recalled that General Attahiru Ibrahim and other 10 military officers died on Friday in a Kaduna plane crash. They were buried on Saturday at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLiyY4_3gu0

How did Umar Babangida become an army captain for crying out loud? Umar Babangida, a Flight Lieutenant in the Air force is equivalent to a Captain in the army and Lieutenant in the Navy. The best pilot age group or rank in any armed forces is between 26 and 30 years or Flying Officer/ 1stLt/ Sub Lt. and Major/ Lt Col or squadron Leader, Wing Cdr,Lt Cdr or Cdr. In Us Air force, it is very hard to see a Col as an active jet fighter pilot. Most airmen and sailors in the same rank as Lt Cols and Cols are assigned to administrative posts such as CO of units or Fleet Commanders. In a Carrier fleet, the pilots are Majors , Captains and Lieutenants. Anyway, this moronic Umar Babangida is quota system product.

pavoda:
Its truly amazing . To fly such high-profile Personality minimum rank and experience should be Colonel or Group Captain in the Airforce. Its unheard of for a flight Lieutenant to fly such high level dignitaries along with his mate or 1yr difference in experience. A Flight liutenat does not have even up to 5yrs experience flying the designated aircraft. May God accept their souls.

You should equally bring Colonel or Group Captain or Naval Captain to be his driver. Most Nigerians are ridiculously silly.

FarahAideed:
Same question I asked , I noticed the Airforce is now allowing 2 inexperienced flight liutenant to man one cockpit together ,. What are our Squadron leaders doing ?

They've all retired and gone into commercial flying. Who wants to die for Nigeria?

I don't knowoo, but I just pity Nigerian soldiers. The last one I chatted with in a check point at Okada, says he loves his job n can die on d job sef, but d corruption n unprofessionalism of their army leaders/chiefs is so discouraging and frustrating.

Even Capt umar classmate have left for commercial flying sef.

You keep mentioning Fighter pilots .The NAF has 3 categories of Pilots, Combat Fighter Pilots, Helicopter Pilots and Transport Pilots. Most fighter Jets don't carry a Service chief inside, if it did then there would be a requirement that the best and most experienced flew him. In the USA the Air Force 1 Pilot is a Colonel. So i don't get you point.As the name implies a Flight Lieutenant is a Flight Pilot in lieu of the Squadron Leader or the Commander of the Wing in this case an Executive Airlift wing. It takes exactly 19 years to become a Wing Commander and over 23 years in service to become a Group Captain or Colonel.The rank of Flight Lieutenant is achieved barely 8 years after entering the Nigerian Defence Academy NDA or 4 years after Passing out of the NDA.

Idiko1:


How did Umar Babangida become an army captain for crying out loud? Umar Babangida, a Flight Lieutenant in the Air force is equivalent to a Captain in the army and Lieutenant in the Navy. The best pilot age group or rank in any armed forces is between 26 and 30 years or Flying Officer/ 1stLt/ Sub Lt. and Major/ Lt Col or squadron Leader, Wing Cdr,Lt Cdr or Cdr. In Us Air force, it is very hard to see a Col as an active jet fighter pilot. Most airmen and sailors in the same rank as Lt Cols and Cols are assigned to administrative posts such as CO of units or Fleet Commanders. In a Carrier fleet, the pilots are Majors , Captains and Lieutenants. Anyway, this moronic Umar Babangida is quota system product.

Naaah! This doesn't add up. It's been established that it wasn't the pilot's first time of flying the COAS. And there hasn't been complaints before now. His total flying hours is also impressive.

Errors could have come from anywhere, anybody or in any guise, not barring Air Chief Marshal himself over the Yoke.

Why not wait for AIB's findings.

Honestly the pilot was just too young and coupled with inexperience and the rest is now RIP.

Ojiofor:
Honestly the pilot was just too young and coupled with inexperience and the rest is now RIP.

na wa for some of una o. A qualified pilot is 'too young' to fly an aircraft?

Please don't blame that boy. We should not forget that they radio for help and had to change attempting to use civilian airspace. It was mechanical issues.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sabotage or assassination.

Obasanjo killed 10 General in a plane crash. Babangida did the same.

careytommy37:


na wa for some of una o. A qualified pilot is 'too young' to fly an aircraft?

Guy is was mechanical issues fa. They radio in advance that they were in trouble and attempted to use civilian airspace.

Go check US air force. It's kids that fly multi million DOLLAR crafts with nukes.
I have seen US air force vet that still looks young because it intelligence they look for.

Carlyscales:


They've all retired and gone into commercial flying. Who wants to die for Nigeria?

I don't knowoo, but I just pity Nigerian soldiers. The last one I chatted with in a check point at Okada, says he loves his job n can die on d job sef, but d corruption n unprofessionalism of their army leaders/chiefs is so discouraging and frustrating.

Even Capt umar classmate have left for commercial flying sef.

I don't like to make friends with soldiers (especially the young once). They are not treated fairly by their supervisors. Suffer all the time. They can even sleep on grass to problem (that is how used to hardship they have are).

I wonder why they can't use their weapons to kidnap, get the ransom in dollars and leave the country.

simple250:
Flying outdated aircraft, Nigeria airforce should give us details of that aircraft, the year it was made and the maintanance update. Una go shock now ...lieutenant general is not the cause, the wife of the pilot said her husband went to 3differnt location before the crash .

I am sure it is an aircraft that has been retired in another country, they sold to us to save/loot money. I still suspect sabotage because, every pilot goes through a checklist before take off (something must have be faulty but they lied to the pilot that it was checked or good to go). After all, no be military, they government hired killers.

So the pilot made them die...nonsense...there is a reason it's called ACCIDENT...it's either the aircraft was sabotaged or it was an ACCIDENT which can happen to anyone

FarahAideed:
Same question I asked , I noticed the Airforce is now allowing 2 inexperienced flight liutenant to man one cockpit together ,. What are our Squadron leaders doing ?

What's the equivalent of NA second lieutenant in the NAF?

faceland:


I am sure it is an aircraft that has been retired in another country, they sold to us to save/loot money. I still suspect sabotage because, every pilot goes through a checklist before take off (something must have be faulty but they lied to the pilot that it was checked or good to go). After all, no be military, they government hired killers.

majority of the military aircrashes in Nigeria, from years ago, all have elements of sabotage... Enemies eliminating enemies that won't bend to their will

Sailorsoldier1:
wat are our Wing Commanders doing? So sad. Pushing away their duties to young officers just like the Regular combatant officers are pushing away their duties of combat operations to DSSC officers. You send them for operations they will grumble n grumble some even carry on.

wow so dssc officers now do combatant ops?

Depressed101:
majority of the military aircrashes in Nigeria, from years ago, all have elements of sabotage... Enemies eliminating enemies that won't bend to their will

Now they want to blame the dead. The dead can not defend themselves. Too much sabotage within the ranks (partly why the war against boko haram has lasted over 15 years).

They want us to believe it's poorly train terrorist that are ambushing our troops and even sacking military base. Na lie. It is soldiers killing soldiers.

Kzinne:
wow so dssc officers now do combatant ops?

yes o

We can not really understand what happened to the crew of the unfortunate aircraft.
However, the two pilots were not too juniors to fly the aircraft and the VIP passengers.
Mechanical error,, weather conditions,, sabotage and human error in the face of difficulty could have been the cause of the accident.
All in all, no one will ever want to die without trying everything possible to avoid the cause of death.
Blame game will not help what has happened, it will only discourage the rank of flight lieutenant remaining in the military service.
God help us

AgentGoat:


What's the equivalent of NA second lieutenant in the NAF?

Flying officer ..

faceland:


Now they want to blame the dead. The dead can not defend themselves. Too much sabotage within the ranks (partly why the war against boko haram has lasted over 15 years).

They want us to believe it's poorly train terrorist that are ambushing our troops and even sacking military base. Na lie. It is soldiers killing soldiers.

And the truth will never come out ,its a Nigeria thing week from now everybody will move on waiting for the next story . It is well

ScamHunter:
Hahaha...they know that there are more competent people from other ethnic groups, but the government is Yorulani government na. You have your answer now?

Yoruba kee you there

simple250:
Flying outdated aircraft, Nigeria airforce should give us details of that aircraft, the year it was made and the maintanance update. Una go shock now ...lieutenant general is not the cause, the wife of the pilot said her husband went to 3differnt location before the crash .

See, aircraft details do not matter. At least imo. A USA fighters jet crashed about two days ago, tho no one got killed. The two pilots ejected before the aircraft crash landed, the aircraft was in total pieces. Kobe Bryant's USA latest private helicopter crashed and killed him and his daughter not very long ago if I'm not mistaken. I wouldnt say poor maintainance caused that, would you?
The thing about aircrafts is that, the engine can still fail, no matter what. A single and very little mistake from a pilot can cause the death of all on board too. By the special grace of God, I'm looking to joining the airforce this year, tho ever since the COAS death, I've been reconsidering whether to ditch it for the Navy

Abeg allow the dead to continue to rest.All these young pilots have many flying hours to their credits.All these postulation does not hold water because the Ethiopian pilots that were involved in the crash in which Prof.Ilesanmi died were also experienced pilots.

because of poor education,Aircraft is no toy for boys or greyhounds is serious biz of high flyin time and high instrument rated brains

Cow brain......a field marshall should be flying buhari then......this was clearly sabotage from a certain cabal called the presidency...... attahiru was a reformist that was surely going crush Boko Haram and probably investigate activities of his predecessor, he was eliminated and they also used the opportunity to eliminate some of the best southern airmen with potential.....this has been going on in the army for years. But foolish yoruba's continue to join a compromised army.....

BSdetector:
Cow brain......a field marshall should be flying buhari then......this was clearly sabotage from a certain cabal called the presidency...... attahiru was a reformist that was surely going crush Boko Haram and probably investigate activities of his predecessor, he was eliminated and they also used the opportunity to eliminate some of the best southern airmen with potential.....this has been going on in the army for years. But foolish yoruba's continue to join a compromised army.....

Una don start. Attahiru that you people were calling quota Hausa-Fulani General. He has suddenly become a Darling. Smh

FarahAideed:


Flying officer ..

Does it mean they can fly planes?

AgentGoat:



Does it mean they can fly planes?

No most don't know how to fly planes and those that do are at very early stages of Basic flying

slivertongue:


simply say ur mind- nepotism

But the said pilot isn’t even a northerner

Idiko1:


You should equally bring Colonel or Group Captain or Naval Captain to be his driver. Most Nigerians are ridiculously silly.

My brother the thing tire me ohh!!
Before u become a pilot you must be certified.
Even rookies fly passenger airlines, till they get fully experienced and veterans.
We have seen experience pilots crash planes.
This his excuse is nonsensical.