At 9:13 on Monday morning, 5 October 2026, air traffic controllers in southern Nigeria lost contact with a Nigerian Air Force ATR 42 flying from Benin City to Lagos. Repeated calls on the radio went unanswered. Hours later, search teams found the wreckage near Igbokoda in Ondo State, close to a naval base on the edge of the coastal swamps.

All 32 people on board, 25 passengers and seven crew, were killed. President Bola Tinubu has declared three days of national mourning.

A Routine Flight That Vanished

Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said air traffic controllers told him that a military aircraft with the tail number NGR 931 had disappeared from contact at 09:13 local time, and that all efforts to raise it on the radio failed. Because it was a military flight, he noted, it fell outside his ministry's regulatory authority, but he pledged full cooperation with the Air Force and its chief, Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke.

The Air Force's spokesman, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, confirmed that the aircraft had been on a routine mission from Benin to Lagos and that a search and rescue operation had begun at once. Local police confirmed the crash site in the Igbokoda area. Reports from the scene describe wreckage in swampy terrain that made the recovery operation slow and difficult.

The ATR 42 in Nigerian Service

The ATR 42 is a twin-turboprop regional airliner built by the French-Italian manufacturer ATR. The Nigerian Air Force operates the type in the ATR 42-500MP Surveyor configuration, a maritime patrol version with a surveillance radar and sensor suite, as well as for transport tasks. A Nigerian Air Force ATR 42-500MP serialled NAF931 was photographed in 2013, the same number reported for the aircraft lost on Monday.

No cause has been given. President Tinubu has ordered a thorough investigation into the crash.

A Nation in Mourning

In a statement, Tinubu called it a painful moment for the armed forces and the whole country, adding that Air Force personnel put their lives on the line every day to secure Nigeria. Flags across the country are flying at half-staff during the three days of mourning.

The crash adds to a difficult record. Nigeria's Punch newspaper counted ten military air incidents in five years, prompting fresh calls for reform. For the families of the 32, those debates will come later. For now, the country is counting its losses.

News Central TV reported from the aftermath:

Sources: AeroTime, AVweb, Sahara Reporters, DW, Anadolu Agency, Xinhua, Punch