For Flight Lieutenant Damilola Adekunle, the Nigerian Air Force has been part of her family story for decades — but so has the pain of losing loved ones in military aircraft crashes.
Twenty years after her father was reportedly killed in a Nigerian Air Force plane crash, Adekunle has lost her husband in another military aircraft disaster, barely two weeks after their wedding.
On September 17, 2006, a Nigerian Air Force Dornier 228 aircraft crashed in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State while transporting senior military officers to Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State for a retreat.
The aircraft had 18 people on board, 15 of whom died in the crash.
Among the victims was Wing Commander E. O. Adekunle, reported to have been the pilot of the aircraft.
Two decades later, another tragedy reportedly struck the same family.
On September 19, 2026, Flight Lieutenant Damilola Adekunle married Squadron Leader Ahamefule Aham Man-Ugwueje in Abuja.
The wedding came just weeks after Man-Ugwueje’s return to duty and was expected to mark the beginning of a new chapter for the military couple.
But only 16 days later, tragedy struck.
On October 5, Man-Ugwueje was among Nigerian Air Force personnel killed when NAF 931, an ATR-42 aircraft, crashed in the Igbokoda area of Ondo State during a routine flight from Benin to Lagos.
The Nigerian Air Force subsequently confirmed that all 25 people aboard the aircraft died.
Man-Ugwueje was serving as the aircraft’s co-pilot.
Reports following the crash identified Flight Lieutenant Damilola Adekunle as the daughter of the late Wing Commander E. O. Adekunle.
If subsequently confirmed by the Nigerian Air Force or the family, the connection would make the tragedy an extraordinary case of loss across two generations of the same military family.
In 2006, Adekunle reportedly lost her father in a military aircraft crash.
In 2026, she lost her husband, also a military pilot, in another crash.
Reports also identified Man-Ugwueje as the son of a retired Group Captain, meaning both sides of the newly married couple reportedly came from military families.
The circumstances have left behind a story of grief stretching across two decades, with a family that has now suffered the loss of both a father and a husband in military aviation accidents.
The Nigerian Air Force has yet to publicly confirm the reported relationship between Flight Lieutenant Adekunle and the late Wing Commander Adekunle.
Until such confirmation is provided, the family connection remains a reported account.
The deaths of Man-Ugwueje and the other personnel aboard NAF 931 have added another painful chapter to the history of military aviation accidents in Nigeria.
For Adekunle, however, the latest tragedy is reportedly not simply the loss of a colleague or military officer.
It is the loss of her husband — 20 years after she reportedly lost her father in a similar tragedy.
Two crashes, two decades apart, and one family confronting an extraordinary chain of loss.
