An ex-managing director of the Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) was among the 153 passengers that died in Sunday's plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria.
Family sources confirmed to Daily Observer Monday afternoon that Ibrahima D.K Janganna, best known as Baye Ebou, who by the time of his death was serving in the international arena as a ports or maritime specialist, was on his way from Abuja to Liberia when the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 ploughed into a printing works and residential buildings in Lagos before bursting into flames. The airliner, operated by Lagos-based Company Dana Air, had flown in from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, when it crashed and burst into flames.
Meanwhile, the Daily Observer visited the bereaved family Monday afternoon and met scores of sympathisers converged on the compound of the late Janganna to express their heartfelt condolences to the said family in this trying moment. "My late brother was a friend, brother and a father to everyone regardless of age," Muhammeh Janganna, a brother to the deceased said in a somber-looking mood. Meanwhile, Fatoumata Janganna, daughter of the deceased who was speaking with a heavy heart described his father's demise as "unexpected". "He was an amazing person and a great role model," she added.
About the deceased
The late Ibrahima D.K Janganna, born May 29, 1953 in Brikama, West Coast Region, was a professional maritime expert who joined the Gambia Ports Authority sometime in the 1970s and rose through the ranks to the position of a managing director before leaving in 2002. He left for Lome, Togo the same year to set up an Eco-Marine International Shipping Company together with other partners where he served as its director general. In 2008, Janganna moved to CPCS, a Canadian firm running projects in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Until his untimely death in Sunday's plane crash, the late Janganna was working with this company that commenced work on a project to reform the Liberian port sector. The company is an international infrastructure development firm specialising in private sector participation in transport, power, and urban sectors. An Ottawa, Ontario-based company, CPCS operates in more than 80 countries worldwide, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Baye Ebou as commonly called got his Masters in Maritime from the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden, and he was an executive member of the Sumpookhaati Sarahulleh Society. He was also a member of the mosque committee in Kotu, where he resides. He is survived by a wife and six children.
Similar incident
It would be recalled that two Gambians also died in a plane crash in the Federal Republic of Nigeria about seven years ago. The late Sheriff Conteh and Ebrima Njie, who boarded the domestic flight, were both staff of Trust Bank Limited.
The plane crash
Meanwhile, reports monitored by the Daily Observer indicated that the pilots reported engine trouble before the Dana Air jetliner crashed into businesses and crowded apartment buildings near Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport, the worst air disaster in Nigeria in nearly two decades. Two years ago, the same Boeing MD-83 had loss of engine power due to a bird strike, according to an aviation database. The cause of the crash remains unclear.
The director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Harold Demuren, said the Nigerian registration number of the plane was 5NRAM. Aviation databases show the plane was exported to Nigeria in early 2009. It was first delivered in 1990 with the U.S. registration number N944AS to Alaska Airlines and it suffered two minor incidents while in the Seattle-based airline's service, according to databases of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Aviation Safety Network. On Nov. 2, 2002, the plane made an emergency diversion due to smoke and electrical smell in the cabin, and on Aug. 20, 2006, the plane was evacuated after landing at Long Beach, California because of smoke in the passenger cabin.
On April 19, 2010, the plane made an emergency landing at Lagos due to loss of engine power after a bird strike following takeoff, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The aircraft appeared to have come down Sunday on its belly onto the dense neighbourhood that sits along the typical approach path taken by aircraft heading into Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport. The plane tore through roofs, sheared a mango tree and rammed into a woodworking studio, a printing press and at least two apartment buildings before stopping. The plane was heading to Lagos from Abuja, the capital, when it went down.