Plane crashes in Nigeria, killing all 153 on board

Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria

A commercial airliner crashed into a densely populated neighborhood in Nigeria’s largest city 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 around to see the crash site.

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 that 153 people were on the flight traveling from Nigeria’s central capital of Abuja to Lagos in the nation’s southwest.

The flight’s pilots radioed to the Lagos control tower just before the crash, saying the plane had engine trouble, a military official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

Rescue officials feared many others were killed or injured on the ground, but no casualty figures were immediately available.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national mourning in Africa’s most populous nation.

The aircraft appeared to have landed on its belly into the dense neighborhood 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 large apartment buildings before stopping.

The dead included at least four Chinese citizens, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported late Sunday.