Nigeria has asked for assistance from some foreign countries, including the US and the UK, in finding a light passenger aircraft which went missing eight days ago during a domestic flight, the private Guardian newspaper reported Sunday.
The paper quoted Air Commodore D.A. Shuaibu, Director of Search and Rescue at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), as saying Nigeria had asked the countries to use their satellite systems to help find the plane, a Beechcraft 1900D operated by local charter airline Wings Aviation Limited.
He said NEMA had conducted a search of the entire area, where the plane was suspected to have gone down, with helicopters and sniffer dogs, without any result, hence the resort to the foreign countries.
The plane, with three crew members on aboard, was on a flight from the commercial city of Lagos to the Bebi Airstrip in South-east Cross River when it went missing.
The disappearance has been described as a national disgrace and embarrassment by stakeholders, while the Presidency is said to have threatened aviation chiefs on the missing plane.
The Cross River state government has offered a reward of 45 million naira (about US$385,000) for anyone with information on the missing plane. Panapress.
