‘People rarely come here’: Revisiting the 2012 Dana Air Crash in Lagos

Among the victims was Oluwadamilare Adeleke, a 400-level student at Bowen University, Iwo. A former roommate, who wished to remain anonymous, shared his memories with The Record.

The first Sunday in June is a day of celebration for the Celestial Church of Christ's Juvenile Harvest. However, on June 3, 2012, joy turned to horror in Lagos.

At around 4pm, members of the Celestial Church of Christ, Ogo-Oluwa Parish in Iju-Ishaga, noticed a plane flying dangerously low.

“Everyone ran out of the church, people left their houses, left the vicinity,” recounted Prophetess Elizabeth Shobowale. “My children told me how they were trying to gather all the children in the church to a safe place.”

This was Dana Air Flight 0992, a routine flight from Abuja to Lagos. As the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 approached Lagos, both engines failed, and the plane plummeted into a residential area, killing all 153 people on board and six on the ground. This disaster became Nigeria's deadliest airliner crash since 1973.

“I heard a loud bang, like an explosion,” recalled Mr. Chike Okwuosa, whose house was near the crash site. “By the time I came out, I saw the plane in flames and smoke everywhere.”