Sosoliso Crash Survivor, Okwuchi, Narrates Survival Story

"Before I knew it, there was this like loud metal scraping sound and that's literally the last thing I remember before I blacked out.” 

On December 10, 2005, a scheduled domestic passenger flight crashed in the south-south city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, killing almost everyone on board.

                          

The Sosoliso Airlines flight 1145 was a scheduled flight from the country’s capital, Abuja, to Port Harcourt, with about 110 people, mostly children on board.

103 people reportedly died immediately at the scene of the crash while five others died later in hospital. Two people survived.

One of the two survivors is a singer and motivational speaker, Kechi Okwuchi. She narrated the incident.

“I was traveling home for Christmas holidays with 60 other students from my high school in Abuja, Nigeria. Once the descent started, that was when everything kind of started to get crazy. It started with just a few bumps here and there and just some turbulence but then eventually it became very extreme, and people started to freak out. And that was when we realized that something was wrong. I remember there was a lot of screaming and chaos. I never got a chance to feel anything further than that shock. Before I knew it, there was this like loud metal scraping sound and that's literally the last thing I remember before I blacked out.”

“I was kept in the South African Hospital in Johannesburg for seven months. I sustained third-degree burns over 65% of my body which means everything from my scalp to my toes burned except for my torso. So, my tummy, my back, these are the areas they took skin from to cover up the major areas of my body that burned. I learned the truth about how many people survived the accident four months into my treatment. I was so confused because up until that moment, I had assumed that everyone was okay. It's like I'm never going to see my friends again that were on that plane.”

“I realized like the last time I saw them was the last time. And that shook me to the core. All my friends are gone. All those people have died and I remember I cried for days, I cried for so long. My family moved to Houston in 2007 primarily because of the level of reconstructive surgery that I would have access to here in America alone. I have had over 120 surgeries and reconstructions over the years.”

“I remember the first time that I asked my mom to show me my reflection. After the accident, I was curious about how I now looked because I knew it would be different. Before the accident, you know my looks were everything, I thought my looks were the reason why I was so confident. She raised the mirror to my face. Everything, first of all, was so pink. Like I had no skin on my face. So, there was just like raw flesh. I could still see some things that were familiar like my eyes, my nose, my lips like there were certain things about my features that were there that just kind of gave me this familiar feeling that I was looking at Kechi still.”

“That was the moment that I realized that my scars do not define me. That was the moment that I understood that whatever made me Kechi obviously went way, way beyond my physical looks. They're a big part of my identity, but they're not everything. So, I made a decision while in that hospital bed that I would spend my life living as fully as possible. That was the best way for me to keep the memories of those that passed away alive. It was the best way to make them proud. And more importantly, it was the best way to make those they left behind proud.”

Okwuchi was 16 years old when the incident happened.

SOURCE: Truly