Nigeria’s safety investigation bureau says it can look into the Ondo crash only if the military asks. The president has told the Air Force to do the investigating.

On Monday the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau published a statement about a crash it is not investigating. The plane that went down at Igbokoda was a military ATR-42. The bureau’s director general, Captain Alex Badeh Jr, wrote that the investigation of military aviation accidents rests with the military.

He cited the NSIB Establishment Act, 2022, and international practice. The bureau investigates a military accident only when the military formally invites it, the statement says.

The bureau offered help anyway. Its Flight Safety Laboratory can recover and read flight data and cockpit voice recordings if the Air Force requests it. The bureau also said any further information from it would be released in consultation with the Air Force.

Meanwhile the orders have gone to the military side. President Tinubu said he had directed the Air Force to start a thorough investigation to prevent future occurrences. Defence Minister Christopher Musa said a comprehensive investigation had been ordered.

Nigeria has been here before. On 21 May 2021 an Air Force King Air 350 crashed near Kaduna airport and killed 11 people, including Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru. The Chief of Air Staff set up a joint investigation with Air Force safety officers and the Accident Investigation Bureau, the NSIB’s predecessor. The crash fell outside the bureau’s mandate.

The bureau’s then chief executive, Akin Olateru, said it was the bureau’s first direct involvement in a military air crash investigation in Nigeria. An interim report reached the Chief of Air Staff in September 2021, nearly four months after the crash. It carried 27 initial findings, and Channels Television reports eight immediate safety recommendations.

Channels Television’s review of the last decade found that boards of inquiry are usually set up after Air Force crashes. It also found that full final reports are rarely released. How many of the 2021 recommendations were carried out is unclear in public sources.

The same review lists smaller cases. After a 2018 collision over Abuja killed Squadron Leader Bello Baba-Ari, the Chief of Air Staff ordered a probe, and Channels says the findings were never fully published. After a 2022 trainer crash in Kaduna killed two pilots, an accident investigation board was set up. Channels says public information confirms only the training context and the deaths.

In February 2021 a King Air 350 crashed near Abuja airport after reporting engine failure, and all seven on board died. The Air Force said an investigation was under way. Al Jazeera carried that statement. Channels says the engine problem appeared in the initial report but was not a full causal finding.

In July 2025 the Air Force said it had gone a full year without a mishap. Channels notes that this was an official claim and was not independently audited in the source it reviewed.

All 32 on board are reported dead. The 2021 interim report was submitted nearly four months after the crash and went first to the Chief of Air Staff. The Air Force brought an outside investigator in then. The NSIB has now said publicly that it stands ready if asked.

As of Tuesday morning the Air Force has not said whether it will send that invitation. Who decides what the public reads when the report comes back is the other open question.