Pete Edochie Recounts How He Survived Plane Crash, Talks About Death Of Son & Elder Brother

In this exclusive chat with Weekend Magazine, veteran Nollywood actor Pete Edochie talked about his close call with death few years back.

Mr Edochie also talked about the loss of his second son and his elder brother, describing it as the saddest moment in his life.

See excerpts:

You have a phobia for flying such that you don’t even board a plane. At what point in your life did you develop this fear?

Edochie: That’s a very tricky question. There was a day I flew from Algeria, and that was in 1978 when I went for the All Africa Games in Algiers and en-route, the engine of the plane, I think one engine, packed up and the plane became very hot inside and all of us began to pray. Some brought out the Qur’an and others brought out the Bible. The man who was sitting next to me brought out a magazine filled with photographs of naked women and I kept saying to myself, if God wanted to save us, for this man’s sake, God might kill all of us. At the end of the day, I kept telling myself God, if you can get me out of this trouble, I will not fly again. I survived it and then I flew a few times after that and stopped.

Can you recall any moment you may describe as your best or saddest?

Edochie: (Long pause) which was my saddest moment? (Another long pause) I lost my elder brother on the August 4, 1965 and I lost my second son, I think in 1973 or 1974; both of them were very sad moments for me.

Apparently because they were very dear to you?

Edochie: Of course, yes. To lose a son is not a small experience it’s so sad, it so tragic, and to lose a brother. Actually, that was the first experience I had of death, you know, when my elder brother died. I thought death was rather selective, I mean, some of us who witness people die will never die. But progressively, we got mature, we came to realise that it has been appointed unto us to die and that we must all go some day.