Nigerianflightdeck.com went digging into the archives and guess what we dug up? Okada Air was an airline based in Benin City, Nigeria. The carrier was established in 1983 with a fleet of BAC-One Eleven 300s and started charter operations in September the same year.
The owner of Okada Air was Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin. In 1984, a Boeing 707-355C was acquired for cargo operations. By 1990, ten BAC One-Elevens were bought, and eight more were acquired in 1991. The company was granted the right of operating international flights in 1992. In 1997 however, the company was went under. It tried to return but at the time of its comeback, Federal government, after an air crash had banned aircraft BAC 1-11 and for an airline that had almost 20 BAC 1-11 during the time of that policy, well lets just say there was no coming out from that particular policy.
Okada Air operated 2 – BAC 1-11-217EA, 1 – BAC 1-11-301AG, 2 – BAC 1-11-304AX, 2 – BAC 1-11-320AZ, 1 – BAC 1-11-401AK, 1 – BAC 1-11-402AP,1 – BAC 1-11-408EF, 1 – BAC 1-11-409AI, 2 – BAC 1-11-416EK, , 2 – BAC 1-11-420EL, 1 – BAC 1-11-424EU, 2 – BAC 1-11-432FD, 1 – BAC 1-11-524FF, 1 – BAC 1-11-539GL, 1 – Boeing 727-228, 4 – Boeing 727-230, 1 – Boeing 727-251, 1 – Boeing 707-355C, 1 – Boeing 707-365C, 1 – Boeing 747-128, 1 – Boeing 747-146, 1 – Douglas DC-8-62. 1 – Sud SE-210 Caravelle VI-N, 1 – Dornier Do 228-100
In June 1991: A BAC One-Eleven 402AP, registration 5N-AOW, force-landed 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) off Sokoto Airport due to fuel exhaustion. There were three fatalities, all of them passengers. The aircraft had been diverted from the original Benin City–Kano route because of bad weather at the airport of destination.
7 September 1989: A BAC One-Eleven 320AZ, registration 5N-AOT, that was finalising a domestic scheduled Lagos–Port Harcourt passenger service, was written off on a hard landing caused by bad weather at Port Harcourt Airport.
1992: A Dornier 228-100, registration 5N-NOR, resulted damaged beyond repair on landing at an unknown location in Nigeria.
Chief igbenedion is a great man,thanks for okada air.