DAILY GRAPHIC, Monday, June 4, 2012, Center Spread Pg.33. Crash attracts hundreds of curious people

 Story: Musah Y. Jafaru, Mary Ankrah & Justice Baidoo

 

The crashed plane and mangled 207 bus after the crash at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra



Residents around the 37 Military Hospital, the El-Wak Stadium and surrounding areas are still living in a state of fear and panic a day after a cargo plane had rammed into a 207 benz bus, instantly killing all 10 passengers on board.

Some of the residents are so scared that they sometimes raise their heads or run for cover whenever aeroplanes take off at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

There was uneasy calm at the Burma Camp, near the Kotoka International Airport, where most of the deceased persons were believed to be heading to when the incident occurred.

When the Daily Graphic visited the Burma Camp, the 37 Military Hospital area and the El-Wak Stadium yesterday, many of the residents were at church services, while others were going about their normal activities.

“We are afraid; we don’t know when this incident is going to occur again,” a resident said. “Anytime we hear the noise of a plane fly past, we get scared.”

A visit to the house of the driver of the Benz bus at the Burma Camp saw a huge gathering of family members clad in black wailing, with some sitting on the bare floor.

According to the family members, the deceased, George Osei, 33, was the breadwinner among the three children of his father’s, Mr Kenneth Asiamah.



Osei usually conveyed passengers from the 37 Station to Teshie-Nungua or the Spintex Road and back.
He was a member and special driver of the Garrison Church of Pentecost, Burma Camp.

With sadness in his voice, Mr Asiamah told the Daily Graphic that he had a phone call from one of his sons, Richard Anane, a Lance Corporal in the Ghana Armed Forces, a few minutes after the accident on Saturday that Osei was the Benz bus driver who had died in the plane crash.

Mr Asiamah said he couldn’t sleep throughout the night and so on Sunday morning he quickly went to the 37 Military Hospital morgue where he identified his son’s body.

When the Daily Graphic revisited the scene of the crash on Sunday morning, there was a long queue at the entrance to the condoned area with people struggling to catch a glimpse of the plane.

Some among the crowd were taking pictures, while others were just looking at the crashed plane. The police and armed military men were also there guarding the area.

Although the environment was a little noisy because some of the people were discussing and talking about the accident, the Daily Graphic observed that some photographers took shots of the crashed plane, printed and sold them to people for GH¢2 a copy.

But a military man at the scene tried to prevent the photographers from selling the pictures, saying it was not advisable to do so.

Meanwhile, the scene of the Saturday plane crash has become a tourist site, attracting hundreds of people.

some residents thronged to plane El-wak Stadium to catch a glimpse of the crashed plane



Many people, young and old, keep trooping to the area to catch a glimpse of the plane, which lost control after landing at the KIA and ended up smashing into a 207 Benz bus, killing the 10 people on board.

The four crew members on board the aircraft survived the accident.

On Sunday, people, some with their children, came from far and near, including places such as Kasoa, Tema, Achimota, Lapaz and Nima, to see the plane.

Some people visited the place before going to church, while others went there after the church service.

To control the crowd that wanted to enter the Hajj Village to look at the smashed plane and the mangled 207 bus, the police made the enthusiastic people join long queues to enter  the place in turns.

Some of the people around suggested that the security services should charge some gate fees to generate some funds for the state.

As if it were a competition, many of the curious ‘tourists’ used their mobile phones and tablets to take shots of the partly damaged aircraft and the mangled 207 bus.

Some of them told the Daily Graphic that although they had watched and listened to the crash story on local and international media, they wanted to see the plane with their ‘naked’ eyes.

One of them, Mr Paul Mensah, said he watched the developing story on TV at his Maamobi residence when the crash occurred but he was not satisfied because he had watched it on the screen.

Therefore, he decided to go to the scene to see it physically and possibly take some pictures. 

Mr Ebenezer Dzabaku, who was at the scene with his four children, told the Daily Graphic that after church service at the Synagogue Church of all Nations on the Spintex Road, his children requested that they be sent to see the plane.

He said he agreed to their request because he personally wanted to see the damage that the crash had done to the nation.

He said his children were happy that they had seen the plane but they had wished they had been given the chance to touch it.

Some of the ‘tourists’ were engaged in arguments regarding the best way the pilot could have controlled the aircraft on the runway to avoid skidding onto the main road.