Nigerian student in US killed by private plane rented for dinner date
A Nigerian student identified as Sani Aliyu, 21, schooling in the US was killed by a propeller of the private plane he had rented for a dinner date.
Sani died on Sunday night, October 16, in a freak accident after walking into a spinning propeller of a small plane on the way back from a date.
The Georgia Southern University student was returning to the plane, which was piloted by his two friends when he was hit twice in the head at Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport.
Aliyu and his date were heading to nearby Savannah, which is around 55 miles from Statesboro from the main campus of the university, where he was studying.
Bulloch County Coroner Jake Futch told Statesboro Herald: “They flew to Savannah to go on a date, flew back, landed at the Statesboro Airport, and the young lady got off the plane, and he got off the aeroplane and walked toward the front of the plane.
“And when he did, the propeller hit him.”
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said the accident happened when the aircraft had “taxied onto the ramp area” and was left stood still around 10.35 pm on Sunday.
The single-engine Cessna was carrying four passengers on the plane, the pilot, the co-pilot, Aliyu and his date.
No one else was injured.
A spokesperson for the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office, Todd Hutchens, said the incident was an accident and no one was at fault: “Nobody is really at fault of anything. It was an accident.”
Georgia Southern University has paid tribute to Aliyu, who was a management major.
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