Nigeria plane crash search focuses on those killed on ground

Rescue workers gather at the site of a plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday. A passenger plane carrying more than 150 people crashed in a crowded neighbourhood in Nigeria's largest city. (June 3, 2012)

By Jon Gambrell and Yinka Ibukun

LAGOS, NIGERIA—A passenger plane carrying more than 150 people crashed in Nigeria’s largest city on Sunday, killing all passengers and crew aboard, an emergency official said. Several charred corpses could be seen in the rubble of a building damaged by the crash, as firefighters searched for survivors and pulled a dead body from the wreckage.

Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority Harold Demuren said that all on board Sunday’s Dana Air flight had died. He did not say how many were on the flight.

  

Rescue workers wrap the charred bodies of passengers. (Right picture) A victim is carried from the scene.

The Lagos state government said in a statement that 153 people were on the flight going from Abuja to Lagos.

Yushau Shuaib, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, said there were likely more casualties on the ground, but the number was unknown. He said they were also still trying to get an official manifest on the flight. Sometimes flights in Nigeria issue paper tickets and don’t record all passengers via computer.

The plane did not to appear to have nose-dived into a building, but seemed to have landed on its belly. It first crashed through a furniture shop and then into residential buildings next to the workshop in this densely packed neighbourhood.

The nose of the plane was embedded into the three-storey apartment building, damaging only one part of the structure. Fire still smouldered everywhere as several thousand people looked on. A group of men stood atop the landing gear that was smoking and took pictures with their mobile phones.

Praise Richard, a witness, said he was watching a film when he heard a loud explosion that sounded like a bomb. He rushed outside and saw massive smoke and flames rising from the crash site around 3:45 p.m.

At the crash site, an Associated Press reporter saw parts of the plane’s seat signs scattered around. Firefighters tried to put out the smouldering flames of a jet engine and carried at least one corpse from the building that continued to crumble. 

Two fire trucks and about 50 rescue personnel were at the site after the plane went down. Some of those gathered around the site helped firefighters bring in the water hoses from their trucks.

The Nigerian Red Cross arrived, as well as Nigeria’s air crash safety investigators.

It was not immediately known what type of plane this was, but Dana Air’s website says that the company operates its Lagos to Abuja and Abuja to Lagos flights using a Boeing MD83 aircraft.

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