Cause of Nigerian crash probed
2005-10-24 13:38
Lissa - Investigators searched the still-smouldering wreckage of a jetliner on Monday, seeking flight-data recorders and ultimately the cause of a crash in the Nigerian bush that officials said killed all 117 passengers and crew aboard.
Nigeria announced a three-day, nationwide mourning period for victims of the crash on Saturday of the Bellview Airlines Boeing 737-200, which ploughed a deep crater into the ground near Lissa shortly after take off from Lagos airport, 50km to the south. The plane had been on the way from Nigeria's biggest city to its capital, Abuja.
"We can say all the people on board the aircraft perished," said information minister Frank Nweke jun on state radio.
Small bits of fuselage, human flesh and clothing were strewn in a nearby copse of trees. A hand and leg lay on the ground. No identifiable bodies could be seen but the smell of death hung close.
Acrid smoke still curled from a deep pit as investigators picked through nearby wreckage, looking for flight-data recorders - the so-called black boxes, which are actually often blazing orange for easier identification.
No survivors
A member of Nigeria's security forces at the scene said his troops were securing the scene so the investigators could work. He asked not to be identified since he wasn't authorised to speak to reporters.
Military helicopters first spotted the smouldering wreckage of the Nigerian-run Bellview jet on Sunday, and search teams that visited the site afterward found no survivors, said Fidelis Onyenyiri, chief of the national civil aviation authority.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, grieving for his wife who died at a hospital in Spain within hours of Saturday's crash, asked "all Nigerians to pray for all those aboard the plane and their families".
It was unclear what brought down the jetliner, but it was not thought to be terrorist-related.
"The weather was not too bad but there was lightning, and an airplane struck by lightning could lose total control. So there is a likelihood of a natural cause," Onyenyiri said.
"There were signs of disintegration which could be caused by impact or other means. Our preliminary position is that the airplane seems to have lost control and went down," Onyenyiri said.
Lost contact
Initial reports indicated the plane lost contact with the Lagos control tower five minutes after taking off from Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos at 20:45 on Saturday, said Jide Ibinola, a spokesperson for the federal airport authority of Nigeria.
State radio said pilots issued a distress call before the plane disappeared from radar.
The 50-minute flight to Abuja was a popular route among Nigerians and expatriates.
The nationalities of those aboard were not immediately known, but most were believed to be Nigerians. United States state department spokesperson Edgar Vasquez said one American aboard the flight had been killed, but he did not identify the person.
Airline officials said 117 people were on board - 111 passengers and six crew members.
Bellview one of the more reliable airlines
Bellview, one of about a dozen local airlines, is a privately owned Nigerian company that operates a fleet of mostly Boeing 737s on internal routes and throughout West Africa, as well as London. Bellview first began flying about 10 years ago and has not suffered a crash before.
Many consider Bellview to be among the most reliable of the airlines shuttling between Nigeria's often-chaotic regional airports, which can resemble bus depots where crowds battle for seats on planes.
Obasanjo's office said the head of state, currently in Abuja, was personally overseeing search and rescue operations.
Obasanjo's wife, Stella, was 59 and would have celebrated her birthday next month. A one-sentence statement signed by presidential spokesperson Remi Oyo described her as Obasanjo's "beloved wife". No further details were given as to what caused her death.
In May 2002, an EAS Airlines jet ploughed into a heavily populated neighbourhood after takeoff at the airport outside the northern city of Kano, killing 154 people in the plane and on the ground.
- AP