Nigerian Air Force Recovers the Cockpit Voice Recorder From ATR 42 NAF 931, a Month After the Ondo Crash

The Nigerian Air Force has recovered the cockpit voice recorder from NAF 931, the ATR 42 that crashed into a swamp near Igbokoda in Ondo State on October 5, 2026. Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, the Air Force’s Director of Public Relations and Information, announced the find in a statement on November 6.

Technical teams from the Air Force and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) confirmed the recorder was intact, according to the statement as carried by Premium Times. Part of the flight data recorder was also retrieved, and the search for the rest of it continues.

What the Air Force recovered

Beyond the two recorders, the statement lists more wreckage, engine components and human remains recovered from the site. The Air Force’s Directorate of Identification and Classification is handling the identification of the remains, Leadership reported.

The ATR 42-500 broke in two on impact, and its main body sank fully into the swamp to about 98 feet (30 m), Premium Times said. The Air Force described the terrain as challenging and said recovery work there is still going on.

It also said it is in contact with the victims’ families and is working with the authorities on environmental concerns raised by the local community. “Investigation is being conducted with due diligence to ensure comprehensive, evidence-based findings,” Ejodame said.

A month in the swamp

The recovery took weeks of engineering as much as searching. The Nigerian Navy brought in sonar equipment on October 7 to map the underwater site, and divers were working underwater by October 14, ICIR reported.

Crews also dug out mud, pumped water from the site and used swamp buggies to cut access routes. By October 19, pumping had brought the water level down significantly and engineers had shored up an embankment with sandbags, according to ICIR.

The aircraft was on a routine mission from Benin City to Lagos when it went down near the Nigerian Navy’s forward operating base at Igbokoda. Our first report on the crash covers the day itself.

The death toll is 25, not 32

All 25 people aboard died: five crew members and 20 passengers. The Air Force gave that count in a statement on October 6 that also named the crew and passengers, Nairametrics reported.

Early reports, including AeroCorner’s first story, said 32 people were aboard, after Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo cited 25 passengers and seven crew. Ejodame later explained that civil air traffic controllers had counted the seven crew separately, while for the military “the seven is in the 25,” Opinion Nigeria reported.

He added that only five of those seven crew were flying the aircraft. The other two were aboard as passengers.

What the recorders can show

A cockpit voice recorder captures the pilots’ voices, radio calls with air traffic control and background cockpit sounds such as engine noise, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board. The flight data recorder logs parameters such as altitude, airspeed and heading.

Together they let investigators match what the crew said and heard to what the aircraft was doing. That matters here: none of the official statements reported so far gives a cause or says whether the crew reported a problem before contact was lost.

The NTSB says both units are built to survive severe impact, fire and deep immersion, which is down to what black boxes are made of. Each carries an underwater locator beacon that can run for 30 days once activated; the Air Force announced this find 32 days after the crash.

The Air Force has not said how the voice recorder was found, where it will be read out, or when. In October the NSIB offered its Flight Safety Laboratory to examine the recordings if the Air Force formally asked, Legit.ng reported, because a military crash falls under military authority.

Pressure for answers

President Bola Tinubu and the Air Force both ordered a full investigation after the crash. Both chambers of the National Assembly have since called for an audit of the airworthiness of Air Force aircraft and a probe of maintenance funding, citing repeated military accidents, ICIR reported.

The Air Force asked for patience, saying the remaining recovery and technical work will take time and careful coordination.