THE military, on Monday, confirmed it got some useful information from farmers on the whereabouts of its missing fighter jet, but said the pieces of information were not sufficient to determine the area of search.
It said the fact that it lost the aircraft, which has two pilots on board, while on a routine operational mission on Friday, did not mean the military had lost control of the country’s airspace to terrorist sect, Boko Haram.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, had a closed-door meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, on Monday, on the missing jet and spoke with State House correspondents afterwards. Continue
He stated that the Air Force now has an idea of where the aircraft could be, but added that bad weather, as well as the fact that the area is an open Sahel, contributed to the difficulty in locating it.
“One of our Alpha Jets went on routine operation in the North East and they lost contact with the control towers and that made us to immediately initiate search.
“The weather has not been helpful as we have deployed all our surveillance capability. The citizens have been very, very helpful and we have got good information from them. But you know, in the aviation sector, we have some specific information that we ought to have to make the search easy.
“The information we are getting from the citizens are good, but not sufficient enough for us to define the area of search. But we have an idea of where the aircraft could be.
“Do not forget that it is the open Sahel. Some people may think it is easy but in the open Sahel, sometimes it is even very challenging. Human beings standing may look like trees and again, the area we are talking about we have operations going on there and we have limitations as to how to conduct the search.
“I am hopeful that before the end of the day or week, we should be able to provide credible information as to the location of the aircraft and then the pilots.
“But one thing is clear: whatever problem they had, an ejection was contemplated. It is, therefore, my hope that the pilots are still alive.
“Sabotage? No. Because it is a distance from Maiduguri to Yola. We are in full control of the air space. But don’t forget that when you lose radio signal, it becomes very challenging. There are so many possibilities, but we are working on it,” Amosu said.
No comments:
Post a Comment