By Charles Igbo
When the nationalities of the victims of the doomed Ukrainian Airline, Boeing 737-800 series, flying from Iran to Kiev, capital of Ukraine were listed, many Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief that no Nigerian citizen was involved.
It is not that they were happy over the other victims, it is just that many of them were yet to recover from the death of two Nigerians in the, also, fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max.
The sigh of relief came too soon. For, it has now been confirmed that Nigeria suffered a loss in the Ukrainian Airline crash, which claimed the lives of 176 people.
Its citizen, Dauda Onoruoiza, died In the crash.
A staff of Boeing, Dauda, who had just finished a three-month course was detailed by Boeing to join the doomed flight in order to study, and assess what seemed like a mechanical noise felt on the plane. Nothing serious, but the aircraft was billed for maintenance on January, the 13th.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be Dauda’s last flight.
His Nigerian roots may not have been known immediately because he probably was carrying a foreign passport.
The aircraft crashed on take off, on its way to Kiev from Iran killing all on board, mostly Canadians and Iranians.
After initial denials, Iran admitted that its military mistakenly shot down the commercial airliner because it flew uncomfortably close to its restricted area. The country had earlier, vehemently denied involvement when both the US President, Donald Trump, and Canadian Prime Minister, citing intelligence sources, held Iran responsible for, fatally, shooting down the aircraft, unintentionally.
This avoidable crash was a consequence of the war of words between the US and Iran over the precision killing of a both feared and revered Iranian Army General, Qassem Soleimani, by the US, using a drone, which button was pushed from a US base, 7,000 miles away. The General had just arrived at the Baghdad International airport, Iraq, and was driving out of the airport with his convoy when the US struck.
Iran had vowed a crushing revenge thereafter. Unfortunately, its most crushing revenge is the accidental downing of this aircraft.
In this revenge, Iran has been the ultimate loser.
During the burial of the General, 56 Iranians died in a stampede. In the plane crash, 81 Iranians perished. US hasn’t lost much.
Sadly, Nigeria and a couple of other countries, including Canada which lost over 60 of its nationales, have also suffered loses.
