Confusion reigns after jet crash; all 117 aboard thought to be dead

An American was on board.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Twisted chunks of metal, ripped luggage and mangled bodies turned a swath of woods into a grisly scene after a Nigerian passenger plane carrying 117 people crashed shortly after takeoff, and officials said Sunday that all aboard were feared dead.
Red Cross and government officials said search teams found no sign that anyone on the Boeing 737 survived when it plunged to earth Saturday night after leaving Lagos, the biggest city in Nigeria.
"It was a very pitiable sight. The aircraft was partly submerged [in the ground] and broken into several pieces," said Fidelis Onyenyiri, chief of the National Civil Aviation Authority. "There were similarly no survivors from what we saw."
The State Department said one American was on the flight.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, grieving for his wife who died in Spain within hours of the crash, asked "all Nigerians to pray for all those aboard the plane and their families."
Chaos at the scene
Confusion reigned for hours after the disaster, reflecting sometimes inefficient government in this West African nation of 130 million people and its freewheeling air transport system in which a dozen local airlines fly from chaotic airports where crowds fight over seats in planes.
Abilola Oloko, spokesman for Oyo state, where the Bellview Airlines jet went down, initially reported that more than half those on the doomed plane had survived. But he reversed himself a few hours later, blaming chaos at the crash scene for conflicting reports.
There also was confusion about the crash site itself.
Officials first said the pilots issued a distress call before the plane disappeared from radar while over the Atlantic Ocean about 15 miles west of Lagos and said helicopters were searching the sea for wreckage.
A police spokesman later reported that search teams located the crashed craft far inland, near Kishi, 120 miles north of Lagos. But Red Cross officials later said the wreck was found in a wooded area near Lissa, a small town 30 miles north of Lagos.
The aircraft was in several pieces, and the sky-blue streaked logo of Bellview Airlines could be seen on the shattered tail. No rescue workers were visible in the footage.
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