153 Perish In Lagos Plane Crash …Shekarau, Aikhomu, Others Listed On Dana Manifest

A plane carrying 153 people plunged into a residential area of Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos yesterday, with all those aboard dead, an inferno blazing at the scene and a number of structures badly damaged.

According to a  rescue official, the number of the bodies being taken away had been people killed on the ground rather than passengers.

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

“The plane is still burning as I speak with you, and there is smoke all over the place,” he said.

Thick smoke rose from the area near Lagos airport and flames could be seen coming from a two-storey building. Residents said the plane had been coming in low, making a loud noise, when it slammed into the residential area.

Some residents said it appeared that the plane nose-dived into the neighbourhood.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, though an official from Nigeria’s rescue agency and an aviation official said the cockpit recorder had been located and handed over to the  police.

Wreckage including a detached wing could be seen in the neighbourhood as the inferno burned. Residents reported seeing bodies being taken out of the area as rescue workers rushed in and a helicopter landed.

“The plane is still burning and gas coming out pervades the whole place, making search and rescue efforts difficult,” Tunji Oketunbi, a spokesman for Nigeria’s accident investigation bureau, told AFP from the scene.

Hundreds of residents swarmed the area to see what had happened.

“It was a Dana (airline) flight out of (the capital) Abuja to Lagos with about 153 people on board,” head of civil aviation, Harold Demuren said.

Asked if anyone likely survived the crash he said, “I don’t believe there are any survivors.”

Lagos State police spokesman Joseph Jaiyeoba said the plane went down in the Iju neighbourhood on the mainland of the city where the bulk of the city’s population lives.

Hundreds of residents swarmed the area to see what had happened.

“It was flying low with a lot of noise for about five minutes before it crashed into the residential area,” one resident said. “It then burst into flames.”

Another resident, Tunji Dawodu, said “I was just coming out of church around 3:30 pm when I heard a loud noise.”

“I thought it was an explosion,” he said. “Then there was a huge flame from the building where the plane  crashed into.”

A spokesman for Nigerian airline Dana confirmed one of its planes was involved in the crash but could not immediately provide further details.

“I can confirm that one of our planes crashed today on the outskirts of Lagos,” Tony Usidamen said, adding “We lost communication with the aircraft. We are going to issue an official statement.”

Nigeria has a spotty aviation record, though Dana has been considered to be a relatively safe domestic airline.

It began flights in November 2008 and had been operating up to 27 daily flights using a fleet of MD-83 aircraft, according to information on its website.

Its aircraft make daily flights between Abuja, Calabar, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Uyo.

This latest incident came after another plane crashed on Saturday night in the capital of the nearby West African nation of Ghana, which saw a cargo plane overshoot 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.

Lagos, the largest city in Africa’s most populous nation, is home to an estimated 15 million people. Built around a lagoon on the Atlantic coast, it is thought to be the largest city in Africa.

In a similar development, grieving family members gathered at a morgue in Ghana’s capital Accra yesterday after a cargo plane overshot an airport runway and crashed into a passenger bus, killing at least 10 people.

The four crew members from the Boeing 727 Allied Air cargo plane survived Saturday night’s accident, and Ghanaian President John Atta Mills visited at least two of them at the clinic where they were being treated.

The two men were in hospital beds as the president arrived, one with visible bruises on his arm and face.

“I pray that all of you have survived and wish you speedy recovery,” Mills said, but did not speak directly to reporters.

At a military hospital morgue where the bodies of victims had been taken, family members gathered to identify remains and spoke of their grief.

“My life has been destroyed,” a teary-eyed Zenab Ayesha, the wife of one of the victims, told AFP. “He was my husband, and the breadwinner of the family is gone.”

She said she heard from a friend that her husband was among the dead.

“I was waiting for him to come back from work and he did not show up,” Ayesha said.

Fred Aneba, who was at the morgue to identify his 27-year-old brother, called his death “a disaster for my family.”

“How will I communicate the death of my brother to our 80-year-old mother? I have lost my only brother,” he said.

Meanwhile, investigation into the Dana Air crash on the outskirts of Lagos yesterday has begun, according to the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren.

Demuren, who spoke with our correspondent on phone on Sunday, in Lagos, said that the flight originated from Abuja.

Asked if they were survivors among the passengers on board when the plane crashed, he said: “We don’t believe there are survivors.

“I am talking to you from the scene of the crash.”

He added: “Right now our thoughts and prayers are with the families.”

Meanwhile, efforts to rescue victims of the crash, which occurred at Iju, are being hampered by the presence of a huge crowd of onlookers, miscreants and sympathisers.

The inaccessibility of the crash area has also made it difficult for rescue teams, which include the police, Red Cross, Army, FRSC, Nigeria Air Force and Fire Service to get to the plane.

The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Femi Osanyintolu, indicated that the building on which the plane landed must be collapsed for any rescue operation to take place.

He also said that they had to be cautious in collapsing the building because of the location of the site of the crash in a residential area.

The remains of Dana Airline which crashed yesterday at Iju near Lagos, killing all 153 persons on board