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Woman who survived plane crash that k*lled all her friends and left her with burns covering 65% of her body reveals how she learned they had died
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Kechi Okwuchi is just one of two survivors of the doomed Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145, which crash-landed on December 10, 2005.
The aircraft was landing at Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers State, Nigeria, after heavy rain and a late attempt to abandon the landing resulted in a gruesome crash.
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft then slammed onto the grass strip between the runway and taxiway before striking a concrete drainage culvert near the runway, disintegrating the aircraft.
Fuel spilled and the aircraft burst into flames, as the fuselage and the cockpit slid for hundreds of meters in flames.
108 lives were lost that day, with Kechi and just one other passenger surviving the horrific crash, which claimed the lives of her friends.
Kechi Okwuchi recalls learning of her friend's deaths
In an interview for The Sutherland Show, Kechi admitted that she initially didn't know that her friends and schoolmates, who were traveling with her on the plane, had died.
She recalled surviving with severe burns and waking from a five-week-long coma in a South African hospital.
However, she thought that everyone survived, but as her recovery progressed, family and medical professionals slowly revealed the truth - that they had all been killed.
It took her months to understand that her friends had died in the crash, admitting that her final memory of the crash was a wholesome moment with her best friend.
“The last thing I remember is holding her hand,” she emotionally admitted.
Kechi was devastated by the news. After focusing solely on the pain and suffering caused by the crash, she felt guilty after complaining about her own struggles, given the circumstances.
"I also couldn't understand why God would allow something like that to happen because I'm Christian, I come from a Christian household," she explained.
Kechi added: "And so, they had spent all this time teaching me about him, telling me this is who saved my life. And so, now I'm hearing he didn't save all these other lives.
"It didn't make any sense to me, you know? So I was struggling with that part as well, of understanding how someone so amazing would allow 60 children to die.
"I really was in a very bad place for a long time," she admitted.
Kechi, who would later make an inspirational appearance on America’s Got Talent: The Champions, where Simon Cowell gave her the Golden Buzzer, reflected more on her experience.
Kechi speaks about her recovery
"I sustained third-degree burns over 65% of my body," she revealed, adding: "So that means everything from my head, like I'm wearing a wig right now, my whole head and my legs, everything burned except for my tummy and my back.
"So my tummy just looks burned because that's where they harvested all the skin that they used to cover me up in South Africa," Kechi shared.
As she struggled with survivor's guilt, she said that a turning point came after being gifted a book full of letters from the parents of children who perished in the crash.
They were grateful she was alive, pushing her to make the most of her life, as Kechi admitted: “They made room for me.”
“I wanted to get better, and I wanted to live and do my best to live well for them because they were watching,” Kechi said of the families.
After going through the tragedy, she further admitted: “Being a Christian, being a believer, it doesn't mean that you're never going to experience bad things, but rather it gives you a place to go to, a place of refuge when those bad things happen.”