"We were forced to fly the crashed plane"
Onlookers stand on the tail wing of the plane that crashed in Lagos, Nigeria, June 3, 2012. (Jon Gambrell/AP)
A passenger plane crashed in Nigeria's largest city on Sunday
with all 153 people on board presumed dead. An unknown number of others on the
ground were also believed killed.
The Dana Air flight from Abuja
to Lagos went down in a densely-populated area
of Lagos,
causing several house fires, reports said.
A spokesman for the airline said 147 passengers and six crew
members were on the flight, according to AFP.
The cause of the crash of the Boeing MD-83 was unclear, but
a military official told the Associated Press that the
plane's pilots radioed the Lagos
control tower just before the crash and reported having engine trouble.
AFP reports an emergency
official and an aviation official said the cockpit recorder had been located
and handed over to police.
Nigerian
officials confirmed no survivors from the crash had been found. "We
presume they are dead," Tunji Oketunbi, spokesman for the country's
Accident Investigations Bureau, told AFP.
President Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national
mourning.
Officials feared a number of people were killed or injured
on the ground, but no figures were immediately available.
There were reports of chaotic scenes after the crash, with
large crowds of curious onlookers blocking access for rescue workers.
According to Al Jazeera, witnesses on the ground believe
the plane "may have hit a power line" before it crashed into a
building and burst into flames.
"Thick smoke rose from the area near the Lagos airport and flames
could be seen coming from the building," the AFP reported. "Residents
said the plane had been coming in low, making a loud noise, when it slammed
into the residential area."
According to the Dana Air website, it operates several
daily Lagos-Abuja and Lagos-Abuja flights using Boeing MD83 planes.
Sunday's crash comes just a day after a Boeing 727 cargo
plane flying from Lagos crashed in Accra, the capital of Ghana, hitting a bus and killing at
least 10.
Lagos' international airport is a major
hub for West Africa, accommodating more than
2.3 million passengers in 2009, according to the AP.
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