Families Of Crash Victims To Receive Support

The government will give support to the relatives of victims of last Saturday�s plane crash, Transport Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, has announced. The quantum and nature of the support are yet to be determined. In the meantime, the government has donated tokens to the bereaved families to enable them to sustain themselves as they grieve over the loss of their dear ones. Additional support is expected to be given to the relatives towards the burial and funeral of their dead relatives. Alhaji Dauda announced this Monday, when he led a high-powered delegation from the government, the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana, Allied Airlines and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to console relatives of the victims of last Saturday�s plane crash in Accra. Other members of the delegation were Lt Gen J. H. Smith (retd), Defence Minister, the Chief of Naval Staff, Real Admiral Quarshie, the acting Nigerian High Commissioner, M. A. Kurmaha, Mr. Valentine Tongo, the Chief Executive Officer of Allied Airlines and Eng. Kayode, the representative of the NCAA Director-General. The Transport Minister said the delegation had been tasked by Ghana's President John Evan Atta Mills, to convey his personnal condolence and that of the people of Ghana to them. Mr Dauda explained that the tokens which had been given to them were not compensations but just something to enable them to plan towards the immediate future and assured them of further government support. Ten people perished when a cargo aircraft that skidded the runway at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) crashed into a passenger bus near the El-Wak Stadium in Accra on Saturday. The aircraft, a Boeing 727-200 belonging to the Allied Air, which had taken off from Lagos in Nigeria, was carrying general goods to Cote d�Ivoire via Accra, when the incident occurred about 7 p.m. On landing, the aircraft overshot the runway, went through the airport perimeter fence before crashing into a 207 Benz bus, with registration GE 5471 Z, on the 37 Military Hospital-Burma Camp Road, instantly killing everybody on the bus. The deceased have been identified as Kennedy Hlordzi, 18; Kwame Boadu, 24; George Osei, 33 (the driver); Castro Abuchow, 26; James Yaw Norgbolo, 26; Gideon Ansah Kumi, 19; Mawuli Lavor, 22, and Evans Abanyel Tabanyeng, 34, a graduate student of the University of Ghana. Two other passengers, a male and a female, are yet to be identified. President Mills last Sunday visited the scene of the crash and proceeded to the Airport Clinic to visit the crew members but could not visit the families because at the time the victims had not been identified. The government delegation visited two of the families at the Burma Camp, the Military Academy and Traning Schools (MATS) and North Kaneshie. The first stop was at the house of the driver of the Benz bus, Osei, where the delegation was met with wailing from friends and family members, who were clad in black with red headbands. At MATS, the family of Lance Corporal Castro Abuchow informed the delegation that the victim was a youngman who passed out from training in 2010. They said Lance Abuchow was on his way to his duty post at the Minister of Defence�s residence when the incident occurred. The spokesperson for the family, Lt Colonel John Buntugu said Saturday was a bad day for the whole country as it witnessed the tragedy which claimed the lives of 10 young people. Meanwhile, representatives of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have met with personnel of the Emergency Operations Centre following the accident in Ghana. Eng. Kayode, the representative of the NCAA Director-General expressed the willingness of the NCAA to help with the on-going investigations. He apologised for the inability of Dr. Harold Demuren, the Director-General of the NCAA to come over to Ghana, as a result of a plane crash in Lagos, in which 153 people died. They also expressed their sympathy for the unfortunate loss of lives. For her part, Mrs. Doreen Owusu-Fianko, Chairman of the Emergency Operation Centre and the Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited welcomed the team and stated that investigations were well under way. Members of the crew of the aircraft have since been discharged from the Airport Clinic.