I remember the entire day frame by frame and I doubt a single day has gone by since the plane crash that I haven’t thought about my sister, Owanari.
My school broke up for the holidays a week before hers and so I spent it in Lagos. She turned 13 a day before the crash…
I remember being so preoccupied with attending some stupid party that I don’t know if I remembered to wish her a happy birthday.
THIS STILL HAUNTS ME!
My flight got in a few hours before hers, I sat quietly and waited for my little sister by the conveyor belt in the arrival hall. It was empty… and dark (there was no power) My parents arrived a little over an hour later… no sign of her flight, no announcements…
nothing.
I joined them in the waiting area outside the arrival hall. The weather was clear. One after another, the parents began to arrive. It was like a mini PTA reunion.
The next few moments changed my life!
It was the loudest sound I’d ever heard!
EVERYONE STOPPED!
It had to be thunder right?? … moments later, the sky darkened…and it started raining.
I knew something was wrong…we all did!
Next was the smell… something was burning… something terrible had happened… there was still no information!
I watched as confusion turned to anger and anger turned to fear.
A group of pilots huddled in a corner whispering… my mum walked up to them and asked what was going on…. his response – a helicopter crashed ma’am!
WHERE IS THE SOSOLISO PLANE??!!!
We knew it took off from Abuja hours ago… amidst the chaos, an ambulance sped past… and then another…. and another… then a pickup truck…. and another…
HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE ON THIS HELICOPTER???!!!
As if by some magic… everyone came to the same realization!
FEAR TURNED TO PANIC.
I remember looking at my mother as it dawned on her…. the look on her face… it shattered my heart.
LET US THROUGH!
Everyone was trying to push past security, who had now barricaded the entrance to the airport.
I would learn later that my mum crawled through the baggage carousel behind the check-in counter to get to the tarmac!
It felt unreal..almost as if I stepped out of my body and watched myself… frozen. My dad pulled my arm and we headed for the car. He drove around through the service entrance and right onto the tarmac…. I just wanted to find my mum.
I saw her… she was on her knees …we ran up to her and helped her up!… and then I looked up… towards the smoke… I saw the plane, it was broken into two, my heart sunk. I heard my dad make a call … “Francis, we just lost Nana”
A lot happened over then next few weeks… maybe I’ll write about it someday.
But something changed in me… something died… or awakened, I don’t know. It changed the very core of who I am.
MY SISTER DIED BECAUSE THERE WAS NO WATER IN THE AIRPORT to put out the flames. Someone somewhere didn’t do their job, or embezzled the money that was meant for diesel in the generators. That person went home to his family that day. Mine changed forever.
I cried for the first time at her funeral and then on new year’s eve (3 weeks later), the next time I cried was years later.
I cried today…I couldn’t remember her face for a brief second and I panicked.
She would have turned 27 yesterday, and I know for a fact, she would have been my best friend.
I miss her every day.
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