Lagos Tragedy : How Dana Air Crashed -Eyewitnesses

Residents of Iju-Ishaga, who thronged to the scene of the crash of a Dana aircraft that happened at Popoola Close by Ogunsoya Street, Paul Bus Stop, have given details of how the incident occurred.
P.M.NEWS learnt from them that many of the residents of the area had become suspicious of the aircraft following the way the pilot was attempting to manoeuvre the aircraft which was flying in an unstable manner.
According to many of them who spoke with P.M. NEWS, the large aircraft which government authorities believe had about 153 passengers on board was seen right from the Agbado-Oke Aro area of Ogun State struggling as it hovered overhead houses and eventually crashing with a loud noise that made a lot of residents run out of their houses.
“When this happened, some of us started trailing it but within seconds after we saw it in Oke-Aro area, it crashed at this place,” one of the residents said pointing to the wreckage of the aircraft.
Another resident of the area who gave his name as Adewale Ogunbanwo, said he was sleeping when he heard the sound of the aircraft and ran outside.
“I was looking at it till it crashed.
“The pilot really tried dodging houses and masts till it finally crashed into the warehouse and the storey-building which also had occupants in it.
“It hit a coconut tree, brought down the branches of a mango tree, hit a cow that was tied to a tree before it crashed.
“I am of the opinion that the pilot was actually looking for a safer place for the plane to crash because if not for his effort, it would have resulted in more casualties,” the eye-witness said.
John Sunday, a freelance journalist, who lives around the area told P.M.NEWS that, “from the way I saw the aircraft moving left and right in the air, I started shouting and telling people that the plane was about to crash.
“I had not finished saying so when we heard a loud bang. We rushed to the scene, but it had been engulfed in flames and there was nothing we could do at the stage but to do our best before government agents and security officials began to arrive the scene.”
Another resident of the area said the storey building which the aircraft crashed into had residents and that when they got to the scene, the trapped residents were screaming for help before the aircraft suddenly exploded with the flame engulfing the house.
According to him, of all the residents in the house as at the period, only an 11-year old boy who fell from one of the rooms where he was sleeping could be rescued alive.
“As I’m talking to you now, all the others trapped, shouted till they became silent,” he said.
Sunday Ola, one of the first people to get to the site, said it happened few minutes to 4pm, adding that the pilot actually struggled before he lost control of the aircraft.
He said before the aircraft hit the building, parts of it had started falling off as it hit objects on its way.
“We saw people’s hands stretching out of the parts of the plane that had fallen off.
“One of the passengers was holding a part of the plane as if he wanted to jump out, but the speed did not allow him. I’m very sure that he died with the others,” he said.
As at 8pm on Sunday, the victims were yet to be rescued as officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, the fire fighters, police and other law enforcement agencies made futile attempts to cordon off the area.
The mangled and shattered parts of the aircraft were also scattered everywhere around the scene of the incident as fire still raged.
An official of the Lagos State fire fighting service, who gave his name simply as Rasak, said he got the distress call concerning the crash and immediately summoned his men who had been trying to put out the fire.
According to him, rescue efforts had become difficult owing to the huge crowd at the scene of the incident.
Officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria could not comment as they said it was too early to state exactly what went wrong.
P.M.NEWS however learnt that they had become apprehensive when they lost contact with the aircraft few minutes to landing.
An official of FAAN said airport authority began to make frantic efforts to find it out before they heard of the crash.
While rescue efforts were on, some youths in the area busied themselves as they butchered the dead cow fighting over the pieces of meat.
Some other youths became scavengers as they began picking materials they could lay their hands on at the site of the crash.
When it was getting late and not much had been done, many rescuers began to return home as they believe the rescue efforts would continue on Monday.
They complained about lack of floodlights to ease the task.

'American Idol' Bikini Girl Pleads Not Guilty to DUI

Exclusive

Katrina Darrell -- the girl who infamously auditioned for "American Idol" back in 2009 wearing just a bikini -- insists ... she isn't a drunk hit-and-runner ... pleading "not guilty" to DUI today.

TMZ broke the story ... Katrina was charged last month with one count of DUI and two counts of misdemeanor hit-and-run, stemming from her March arrest.

As we reported, Katrina was busted in L.A. after allegedly running a red light and smashing into another car. According to police, Katrina attempted to flee the scene ... but was pulled over down the street by a cop who heard the crash.

Back at the police station, an officer administered a breathalyzer -- and Katrina allegedly blew roughly twice the legal limit in California.

She's due back in court June 29th.

2 girls raped in broad day light robbery

Two females in a bus conveying passengers from Lagos to Abuja were last Tuesday raped by armed robbers who attacked their bus at Sagamu area of Ogun State.
The gunmen also robbed all the passenger. It is learnt that the incident occurred around 12noon.

It was gathered that the three-man gang armed robbers were among the passengers that boarded the bus at Jibowu area of Lagos.



But on getting to Sagamu, they brought out their guns, ordered the driver to stop and then diverted the bus.
The Station Manager, Ifesinachi Bus Transit, the operator of the vehicle, who identified himself simply as Nelson, confirmed the incident. He said the victims would be compensated.
He said, “Truly, the bus was robbed, and I immediately left to meet the victims when the report got to us.

“I addressed everybody, including the two girls that were raped. Some were given money to return home while others were advised to report at our Jibowu office for another bus to convey them to Abuja the next day.

“Some of them disagreed with the arrangement. I spoke to the two ladies that were raped in privacy and volunteered to take them to the hospital. One of them refused and the other who said she was 18-year-old accepted.

Nelson admitted that the passengers were not checked before they boarded the vehicle, saying he thought the style used by the robbers was no longer in vogue.

“We are sorry for not checking the passengers but you need to understand that nobody is perfect. There was also security arrangement we put in place but we stopped when we felt things had normalised. This was part of the reasons why we don’t operate night buses,” he said.

On the insinuation that the bus’ driver could have been the mastermind of the robbery, the station manager said all their workers were reliable.

Nelson said, “He parked at Somolu because of the limited space at our office. I could have called him but his phone and other valuables were also taken by the robbers.”

A final year pupil of the Nigeria Military School, Kaduna State, who was one of the victims, Feyisa Ayo-Vaughan, said the robbery took place few hours after they left Lagos.

He said, “We left Lagos around 8am. On getting to Sagamu, one of them brought out a pistol, pointed it at the driver and took over the steering and drove us into the bush. We were searched, robbed, and then the two girls were raped.”

The pupil, who lost his documents and money to the robbers, said the documents might affect his leaving the school in August.

Another victim of the robbery, who is also a pupil of the NMS, Silas Anure, said the attack was like a dream.

“They drove us into the bush and collected our money and even raped two girls. Two of the robbers slept with one girl, while the other two robbers slept with the second girl,” he claimed.

Andre 3000 channels Jimi Hendrix for upcoming biopic 'All is By My Side'

Andre Benjamin aka Andre 3000 portrays Jimi Hendrix filming 'All Is by My Side' on May 28, 2012 in Dublin, Ireland.

Jimi Hendrix is back from the dead ... kind of.
Donning an afro and a style straight from the '60s, OutKast's Andre 3000 was snapped Monday on set of the upcoming 'All is By My Side', a biopic about the legendary guitarist.
Andre 3000 – whose real name is Andre Benjamin – will stray from his rapper past to play the psychedelic rocker. The film is said to be based on Hendrix's pre-fame years and is due out next year.

Andre 3000 is snapped on set of his upcoming biopic in full costume as Jimi Hendrix. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; JD1/WENN.com)(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; JD1/WENN.com)

Benjamin told the Daily News eight years ago that he was slated to play the guitar god on screen, but it took this long for the pieces to fall into place.
It seems it was well worth the wait for the OutKast rapper. The film, which co-stars Haley Atwell, is currently filming in Ireland.

Hailey Atwell is seen on set on May 28, 2012 for 'All is By My Side,' the Jimi Hendrix biopic that she co-stars in with Andre 3000. (JD1/WENN.com)

Facebook stock fall knocks Mark Zuckerberg off top 40 richest people list

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is no longer a top 40 hit.
With Facebook shares floundering since the social-networking company went public, the 28-year-old CEO dropped off the list of the world’s 40 richest people Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zuckerberg’s monetary worth was pegged at $14.7 billion Tuesday, down from $16.2 billion on May 25, Bloomberg reported. In that time, the price of shares dropped 9.6% to $28.84.
“It seems to be a clear reflection that there was just too much stock issued, that the valuation was aggressive and that a lot of people who lined up to buy it really had no intention of holding it,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of BMO Harris Private Bank in Chicago, told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

How low will Zuckerberg's fortune go? Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

 

When Facebook shares closed at $38.23 on May 18, the day the stock debuted on the Nasdaq, Zuckerberg’s net worth totaled $19.4 billion, Bloomberg reported.
Some Wall Street analysts believe Facebook’s stock price will continue to slide before it can stabilize — which would mean the recently married billionaire’s massive personal fortune could further diminish.
Colombian businessman Luis Carlos Sarmiento, who’s built a financial services empire worth $15.5 billion, surpassed Zuckerberg to make the Bloombergindex, which is updated daily.
No. 1 on the list was Mexican telecom czar Carlos Slim Helu, (worth $67.9 billion), who is ahead of Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($60.5 billion) and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet ($44.7 billion).

Zuckerberg is still pretty wealthy with a worth of more than $14 billion. Tony Avelar/Bloomberg

New Video: Tipsy – I Don’t Know

Train Racist Woman which was posted on YouTube Jailed For 21 Weeks In UK

A drunk woman who racially abused fellow tube travellers in a tirade that was posted online has been jailed for 21 weeks.
Jacqueline Woodhouse, 42, from Romford in Essex, launched an expletive-laden rant at passengers on the Central line, telling those seated near her: “I used to live in England and now I live in the United Nations.”
A seven-minute video of the verbal assault was uploaded to YouTube and viewed more than 200,000 times.
District judge Michael Snow told Westminster magistrates court, central London: “Anyone viewing it would feel a deep sense of shame that our citizens could be subject to such behaviour and may, as a consequence, believe that it secretly represents the views of other white people.”
The judge told Woodhouse she would serve half her sentence behind bars and banned her for five years from using the London Underground and Docklands Light Railway network while drunk.
He recounted how Woodhouse drunkenly boarded the Tube at about 11pm on 23 January. “The train was packed with people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds,” he said. “The people included children.
“She became loud, foul-mouthed and aggressive. She targeted her behaviour at those who weren’t white.
“She directed it at those who were close to her, on occasions directly into their faces. She threatened violence against more than one person and it took place over a prolonged period.”
He said her “grossly offensive” language reflected her hostility to her fellow passengers.
While one traveller was left so shocked by her racist aggression that he no longer felt he could interact with white people on the tube, another, of Pakistani descent, felt victimised because of his “cultural background” and was left wishing he could afford a car to avoid having to take the Underground, he said.
Rejecting suggestions by Woodhouse’s legal team that she felt “deeply ashamed” of her actions, the judge added: “I find that assertion very difficult to believe.
“She initially pleaded not guilty. She changed her plea to guilty one day before her trial. By this time, she had victimised the witnesses twice over by causing them the inevitable worry of having to give evidence and coming into contact with her again.”
Woodhouse was fined following a similar offence on the DLR in December 2008. In the video of her latest foul-mouthed outburst, filmed by businessman Galbant Juttla, Woodhouse shouts in a thick Essex accent: “All fucking foreign fucking shitheads.”
The former secretary, who has since lost her job and now claims benefits, turns to other passengers and asks: “Where do you come from? Where do you come from? Where do you come from?
“All over the world, fucking jokers. Fucking country’s a fucking joke.
“I would like to know if any of you are illegal? I am sure like 30% of you are. Fucking jokers taking the fucking piss.”
Claire Campbell, prosecuting, said Woodhouse began her stream of abuse after a retirement party when she was feeling a little “worse for wear”. She had drunk an unknown quantity of champagne.
Woodhouse sat with her head bowed as CCTV footage of the prolonged rant between St Paul’s and Mile End stations was played to the court.
In it she could be seen turning to the Pakistani man sitting next to her, who is singing his national anthem.
“You can fucking sing my fucking dear friend. I hope they fucking catch up with you and shove you off. I will punch you in the face, you are a fucking joke. Pakistani fucking losers. Ninety percent of you are fucking illegal. I wouldn’t mind if you loved our country.”
She then turns on Juttla, 47, who assures her he would rather be listening to his music than to her ramblings.
“Oh look, he’s filming, hello. Hello government,” she says, leaning into the camera. “Why don’t you tell me where you’re from?”
Juttla, from Ilford, Essex, replies: “I am British.” She then gets her phone out of her handbag and looks as if she is filming him too. “Watch what you are saying,” Juttla warns her.
She replies: “I used to live in England and now I live in the United Nations.”
Juttla decided to film Woodhouse – who previously worked for the Department for Transport – when she started berating a black woman named Judy Russell, the court was told.
She stumbled over Russell as she boarded the carriage and proceeded to hurl insults, shouting: “You Africans take our council flats.”
Juttla, a single father of two, was travelling back from the funeral of a close family friend that day. He watched Woodhouse sit down between two Asian men before she lambasted those around her.
The video shows Juttla telling Woodhouse to keep her mouth shut and that she has had too much to drink.
She becomes extremely agitated and starts screaming, saying: “It’s not your country anyway so what’s your problem? It’s been overtaken by people like you.”
In further remarks, she tells passengers: “I’ll have you arrested because you don’t live here”, and “I hope you are not claiming benefits.”
She handed herself in to police after the footage began to circulate and appeared on the Sun website.
Woodhouse told officers she could not remember the rant but recognised herself in the video.
She pleaded guilty to one count of causing racially aggravated “harassment, alarm or distress” by using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour”.
Rebecca Lee, defending, said Woodhouse had been promoted to become PA for a partner at the accountancy firm where she worked the day before she launched her stream of abuse.
“She is dismayed and, I should say, not only for those who were present but also because she has friends and family members who are black and Asian and she knows they would have been shocked hearing those words coming from her,” the lawyer said.
“She maintains she would never have dreamt of saying those words had she not been significantly affected by alcohol, having gone to a leaving party after work on that particular evening.”
Lee suggested a fear of terrorist activity and her views on immigration could have fuelled Woodhouse’s actions. But she recognised this was “no justification” for her behaviour.
“She is ashamed of what happened and wishes she could turn the clock back but of course she can’t,” Lee added. “She is on jobseeker’s allowance, having lost her employment.”
Woodhouse, who was said to be in a “loving” relationship with her partner of 12 years, was supported in court by one of her sisters and a niece.
The publicity and attention to her case was said to have taken a “considerable toll” on her mental health and she was prescribed medication for depression.
She appeared to show no emotion as she was led from the dock.
Outside court, Juttla recalled his horror at the rant. “I was pretty shocked, and I don’t want to go through anything like this again,” he said. “I was born in this country, and I don’t accept any of this behaviour.
“For a third party to say ‘You are on benefits, you are unemployed, you are not British’ … I don’t accept it.
“I think the judge probably made the right decision – she got the order for five years, and she’s got 21 weeks. Hopefully she’ll learn from that.”
In December 2008, Woodhouse verbally abused a male passenger while on a train to Stratford. She asked whether he had paid taxes, adding: “I have had enough of it. Why don’t they go back to where they come from?”