48 bodies found after Nigeria air crash - The Independent

Emergency workers in Nigeria fought fires and searched for bodies
through the night after an airliner crashed, killing all 153 on board.

Rescue officials said today they fear many people may have perished on the ground too.

A Nigeria Red Cross report said that 48 bodies had been recovered so far, but more are being dug out from the rubble.

After pilots reported engine trouble, the Boeing MD-83 of Dana Air crashed into businesses and crowded apartment buildings near Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Sunday, the worst air disaster in Nigeria in nearly two decades.

"The fear is that since it happened in a residential area, there may have been many people killed," said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.

The cause of the crash remained unclear. The pilots radioed to the Lagos control tower just before the crash, reporting engine trouble, a military official said.

Rescue workers searched for the aircraft's black box recorders where flight data is stored, said Harold Demuren, the director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

The aircraft appeared to have landed on its belly amid clear, sunny skies on to the dense neighbourhood that sits along the typical approach path taken by aircraft heading into Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

The plane tore through roofs, sheared a mango tree and rammed into a woodworking studio, a printing press and at least two apartment buildings before stopping. The plane was heading to Lagos from Abuja, the capital, when it went down.

A white, noxious cloud rose from the crash site that burned onlookers' eye. Pieces of the plane were scattered around the muddy ground.

While local residents helped carry fire hoses to the crash site, the major challenges of life in oil-rich Nigeria quickly became apparent as there wasn't any water to put out the flames more than three hours later.

Some young men carried plastic buckets of water to the fire. Fire trucks, from the very few that are stationed in Lagos state with a population of 17.5 million, couldn't carry enough water. Officials commandeered water trucks from nearby construction sites, but narrow, crowded roads prevented them from reaching the crash site.

The dead included at least four Chinese citizens and two Lebanese, it was reported.

Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, has a history of major aviation disasters, though in recent years there hasn't been a crash. In August 2010, the United States announced it had given Nigeria the Federal Aviation Administration's Category 1 status, its top safety rating that allows the West African nation's domestic carriers to fly directly to the US.

But many travellers remain wary of some airlines. The country is beset by government corruption and mismanagement.

On Saturday night, a Nigerian Boeing 727 cargo airliner crashed in Accra, the capital of Ghana, slamming into a bus and killing 10 people. The plane belonged to Lagos-based Allied Air Cargo.

Lagos-based Dana Air has five aircraft in its fleet and runs both regional and domestic flights. It has announced on its website that all today's flight have been cancelled. Local media reported a similar Dana flight in May made an emergency landing at the Lagos airport after having a hydraulic problem.

At the crash site police with cadaver dogs searched for bodies inside the wreckage. Overnight officials brought in a large crane from a local construction company to lift pieces of debris away. They also brought blow torches to cut through what remains of the plane. The debris still smouldered today. Some wore masks to try to protect themselves from the stench of the dead.

They used the crane from the construction site to lift the tail of the aircraft. The metal shrieked as it lifted skyward and was dropped down. Investigators then climbed ladders to begin to look at its tail.

Nigeria has tried to redeem its aviation image in recent years, saying it now has full radar coverage of the entire country. However, in a nation where the state-run electricity company is in tatters, the power grid and diesel generators sometimes both fail at airports, making radar screens go blank.

Sunday's crash appeared to be the worst since September 1992, when a military transport plane crashed into a swamp shortly after takeoff from Lagos. All 163 army soldiers, relatives and crew members on board were killed.

At least 62 bodies recovered from plane crash site

LAGOS – Rescue workers have so far pulled at least 62 bodies from the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Lagos, an official said as searches pressed on Monday at the site of the devastation.

Two cranes arrived early Monday to clear debris and allow rescue workers better access to the densely populated area near the airport where the Dana Air plane crashed on Sunday, with the 153 people on board presumed dead.

“Sixty-two bodies recovered so far,” the rescue official said on condition of anonymity.

A few thousand onlookers gathered at the site, where a church, a two-storey residential building and a printing shop were badly damaged. The number of those killed on the ground remained unclear.

Smoke was still rising from the scene and water trucks were also brought in to douse the smouldering wreckage.

“We were lucky. We just finished our church service when this thing happened,” one resident at the scene on Monday morning said.

One woman, who said that her uncle had been aboard the plane, asked rescue workers if she could have access to the site, but they refused, saying the bodies were unrecognisable.

President Goodluck Jonathan has declared three days of national mourning for victims of the crash.

Lagos Plane Crash: More bodies recovered as Jonathan visits

LAGOS - Rescuers recovered burnt human remains as investigators probed for clues Monday after a plane slammed into a Lagos neighbourhood, with all 153 on board killed and more feared dead on the ground.

Police fired tear gas at a surging crowd seeking to get a look at the crash site at one point on Monday morning, while at other spots around the site people desperately sought access to the wreckage to locate missing relatives.

They were denied access, with rescue workers combing the scene of the crash — the world’s worst air disaster so far this year — saying the bodies were unrecognisable.

“I just want to be sure of how he died,” one man told rescue workers of his brother.

Wreckage still smouldered at the grisly site near the airport in one of Africa’s largest cities as two cranes cleared away debris and a few thousand onlookers gathered.

Local media reported that the crash of the Dana Air Boeing MD83 was Nigeria’s worst since 1992, when a military C-130 went down after takeoff in Lagos, killing all 200 on board.

There have been a number of other crashes with more than 100 victims over the past decade in Nigeria but the most recent was in 2005.

Rescue workers had pulled at least 62 bodies from the wreckage by Monday morning, a rescue official said.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who declared three days of national mourning, was due to visit the crash site Monday, a spokesman said.

At least one of the plane’s two cockpit recorders had been recovered, officials said. The aviation minister said the flight had declared an emergency 11 nautical miles from the airport but the cause of the crash remained unclear.

The flight disappeared from radar one minute after having declared the emergency at 3:43 pm local time (1443 GMT), a statement from the minister said.

An aviation source said the pilot had told the tower that he was experiencing problems with the plane, but further details were not yet clear.

The plane, which was flying to Lagos from the capital Abuja, crashed near the airport, damaging buildings and setting off an inferno in the poor and densely populated neighbourhood located in the city’s northern outskirts.

Chaos broke out after the crash, with rescue workers facing large crowds and aggressive soldiers while trying to access smoldering wreckage in the hunt for survivors.

While tear gas was fired at one point on Monday morning, the scene was generally much more calm, with a heavy security deployment in place.

Nigeria has a spotty aviation record, although Dana had been considered to be a relatively safe and reasonably efficient domestic airline since it began operating in 2008.

A spokesman for Nigeria’s Accident Investigations Bureau said all 153 people on board the plane were considered dead. The number of those killed on the ground was unclear.

A spokesman for the airline said the plane was carrying 147 passengers and six crew. China said six of its nationals were on the plane.

In the aftermath of the crash, thick smoke rose from the area and flames could be seen shooting from a two-storey building.

Thousands of onlookers had partially blocked access to the crash site on Sunday, prompting soldiers to try to clear out the area, using rubber whips and their fists. One even threw a wooden plank at those crowded around.

The area plunged into all-out pandemonium when a helicopter tried to land amid the crowd, kicking up clouds of ash and light debris that again scattered people in various directions.

Some residents said it appeared that the plane had nosedived into the neighbourhood while others described it as swaying back and forth before crashing.

“It was waving, waving, waving,” Yusuf Babatunde, 26, said at the scene. “The pilot was struggling to control it. It crashed — it just started burning.”

An official with the National Emergency Management Agency said the plane had crashed into two buildings, a church and the two-storey residential structure.

At least three people had been transported for treatment with relatively minor wounds, he said, in addition to the bodies pulled out of the wreckage.

The president’s office said in a statement that Jonathan had “directed that the Nigerian flag be flown at half-mast for the three days of national mourning.

“Meanwhile, the president has ordered the fullest possible investigation into the crash,” it added.

Lagos, the largest city in Africa’s most populous nation, is home to an estimated 15 million people.

The accident followed another plane crash Saturday in the capital of nearby Ghana, when a cargo plane overshot a runway and hit a passenger bus, killing at least 10 people.

The Allied Air cargo plane had departed from Lagos and was to land in Accra.