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British economist killed in Nigerian aircrash
(June 06, 2012)British economist killed in Nigerian aircrash
A British economist was among 159 people who died when a Nigerian passenger jet crashed on final approach to Lagos airport, it emerged yesterday.
2:31PM BST 06 Jun 2012
Antonia Attuh, 46, who was married with three children, was travelling for a training course in Nigeria's largest city from her home in the capital, Abuja, where she worked for the country's Central Bank.
Her parents, from Wavertree, Liverpool, said yesterday that they learned about the crash of the Dana Air MD-83 as they watched the television news.
Edwin Chime, 82, Mrs Attuh's father, said he feared the worst because his daughter had called him before she travelled on Sunday to say that she would be on the Dana Air flight.
Relatives have already travelled to Lagos to try to identify Mrs Attuh's remains.
Emergency services continued to search the crash site for bodies yesterday. The remains of more than 140 people have been found.
Fidilia Chime, Mrs Attuh's mother, said: "We are very proud of her. She was professional and gentle and helped everybody that came across her.
"Nobody would say anything against her because she was always smiling and she was a wonderful mother."
Mr and Mrs Chime moved from Nigeria when their daughter was four years old and settled in Merseyside.
Mrs Attuh went on to post-graduate studies in accounting and finance before joining Westminster City Council and progressing to a position in senior management.
She and her husband, Robert Attuh, had three children, now aged 12, eight and six, and moved to Nigeria two years ago to give them a taste of their family heritage.
The cause of the crash has not officially been explained. The crew radioed the control tower at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport to say that they had engine trouble shortly before the plane went down, five miles from the start of the runway.
The aircraft had a history of technical difficulties, one anonymous Dana Air worker told Nigerian television. But the airline's Indian owners have insisted that it was safe and airworthy.
Mrs Chime called for an inquiry into the cause of the crash. She said: "Only then can the lessons of this tragedy be learned. My sister would not have rested until she had gotten to the bottom of what happened and why it happened."
The Nigerian government yesterday suspended the licence of Dana Air airline as a matter of safety and grounded all of its flights while it investigates the accident.