A Nigerian female pilot, Adzuayi Ewuga, has died in a plane crash in Central Cameroon, the Ministry of Transport said.
The late pilot is the second daughter of Senator Solomon Ewuga, a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa State and former Minister of State for FCT.
Air traffic controllers “lost radio contact with the aircraft” which was later “located in the forest” near Nanga Eboko, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) northeast of the capital Yaounde, the ministry said in a statement.
A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plane “crashed” and rescuers were “trying to see if it’s possible to save anyone”.
The plane was chartered by a private company, the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO) that maintains a hydrocarbon pipeline that runs between Cameroon and neighbouring Chad, official sources told AFP.
The pilot reportedly died with 11 others on board a mini-aircraft belonging to Caverton Aviation Cameroon, when air traffic services lost radio contact, causing the plane to crash.
Local Cameroon media reports that the aircraft was flying from Yaounde Nsimalen Airport to Belabo, in the east of the country when it crashed, killing all on-board.
Caverton Aviation Cameroon is a subsidiary of Caverton Offshore Support Group based in Lagos, Nigeria, which also controls Caverton Helicopters.
The Nigerian sister-carrier also operates a single DHC-6-400 complementing various helicopters providing support for the country’s oil and gas industry.
It was the first major air catastrophe reported in Cameroon since 2007, when a Kenya Airways plane carrying 114 people crashed after take-off from Douala Airport. There were no survivors in that accident.
Three years later, an investigation by Cameroon’s civil aviation authority concluded that the crash was due to pilot error.
Since then, Cameroon has only experienced minor air accidents involving small passenger planes or helicopters.
