Plane crash:
A commercial airliner goes down in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, killing more than 150 people.
LAGOS, Nigeria — A commercial airliner crashed into a densely populated neighborhood in Nigeria’s largest city on Sunday, killing all 153 people on board and others on the ground in the worst air disaster in nearly two decades for the troubled nation.
The cause of the Dana Air crash remained unknown Sunday night, as firefighters and police struggled to put out the flames around the wreckage of the Boeing MD83 aircraft. Authorities could not control the crowd of thousands gathered to see the crash site, with some crawling over the plane’s broken wings and standing on stillsmoldering landing gear.
The flight’s pilots radioed to the Lagos control tower just before the crash, saying the plane had engine trouble, a military official said.
Harold Demuren, the director-general of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority, said all on board the flight were killed in the crash. Lagos state government said 153 people were on the flight traveling from Nigeria’s central capital of Abuja to Lagos in the nation’s southwest.
Rescue officials feared many others were killed or injured on the ground, but no casualty figures were immediately available. Firefighters and locals were seen carrying the corpse of a man from one building.
President Goodluck Jonathan later declared three days of national mourning in Africa’s most populous nation.
The aircraft appeared to have landed on its belly in the neighborhood that sits along the approach path taken by aircraft heading into Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport. The plane tore through roofs and rammed into a woodworking studio, a printing press and at least two apartment buildings before stopping.
While local residents helped carry fire hoses to the crash site, the major challenges of life in oilrich 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, trying to douse small portions. Officials commandeered water trucks from nearby construction sites, but they became stuck on the narrow, crowded roads, unable to reach the crash site.
Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, suffers from endemic government corruption and mismanagement. The nation also 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 United States.
But many travelers remain leery of some airlines. 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’ Allied Air Cargo.
Officials with Lagos’ Dana Air did not respond to calls for comment Sunday night. The airline has five aircraft in its fleet and runs both regional and domestic flights.