Nigerian military aircraft carrying 32 crashes, rescue ongoing-Xinhua
ABUJA, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- A military aircraft carrying 25 passengers and seven crew members crashed near a local community in Nigeria's southwestern Ondo State on Monday, an official said. Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, said in a statement that the aircraft crashed near the Naval Base in Igbokoda, a riverine community in Ondo State. Keyamo said search and rescue operations had commenced, noting that the "control and regulation of military aircraft are completely outside the authority of the Ministry of Aviation and the civil aviation authority." In a separate statement, the Nigerian Air Force confirmed that the aircraft was a twin-engine turboprop rather than a helicopter as previously believed. The ATR-42 aircraft was on a routine mission from Benin, ...