A Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 went down at Igbokoda on Monday, and all 32 on board are reported dead. The Air Force will release the names once families have been told.

At 9:13 a.m. on Monday, air traffic controllers lost contact with a Nigerian Air Force plane flying from Benin City to Lagos. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo gave the tail number as NGR 931. Repeated attempts to raise the plane on radio failed, he said. He said preliminary information showed 25 passengers and seven crew on board.

The wreckage lay close to the naval base at Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area in Ondo State. The Air Force confirmed the plane was its own, called the flight a routine mission and said a search and rescue operation had begun. Its statement did not confirm any deaths or survivors.

Oluboyo Olusola lives in Igbokoda. He did not see the plane come down. He told TheCable, “We heard a loud noise like thunder and rushed to the scene.” He said the ground was waterlogged and hard to cross, and that naval personnel helped people reach the wreckage. From what he saw, he said, nobody appeared to have survived. TheCable carried his account.

Oba Afolabi Odidiomo, the Olu of Igbokoda, was in court when the plane came down. He sent palace aides to find out what had happened. He told the same outlet he first feared a commercial airliner with far more people on board. He said the plane fell into a river and swamp outside the town, in the rain, and did not catch fire.

Dayo Akinte, 39, hawks firewood and lives about a kilometre from the site. She told AFP she heard a sound she took for thunder.

Ondo Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa described the first minutes on Channels Television. He said Navy personnel held back briefly in case of an explosion, then moved in when they saw no flames. Amotekun officers and the local emergency agency followed. Some people saw the aircraft nose-dive into the swamp, he said. He said, “From all indications, there are no survivors yet that we can record.” Channels carried the interview.

Rescuers recovered ID cards and uniforms, the governor said, and that was how they knew it was a military aircraft. Defence Minister Christopher Musa’s statement on Monday also extended condolences to the families of civilians on board. The presidency’s statement speaks of Air Force personnel, and Premium Times reports that the presidency indicated the dead were mostly military.

President Tinubu declared three days of national mourning and ordered flags to half-mast. In a statement by his spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the presidency said Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke had briefed him. It also said the Air Force will release the officers’ names after contacting their families. The statement refers to personnel who died but gives no count.

Premium Times reads that statement as indicating that all 32 on board died. The identities of those on board have not been released, and the cause of the crash has not been established.

Channels Television describes the ATR-42 as a workhorse for maritime patrol and surveillance flying. Thirty-two people took off on a mission the Air Force called routine. By Tuesday morning the public held a tail number, a route, a time and a headcount.

The Air Force has said the names will follow. It has not said what brought the plane down.