No survivors in Nigeria air crash – govt
36 minutes ago
ABUJA (Reuters) – All 117 people on board a Boeing 737
that crashed in southwestern Nigeria are dead, the government said in a
statement on Sunday. The Bellview Airlines flight lost contact with the control
tower minutes after taking off from Lagos in a storm en route to the capital
Abuja on Saturday night, and rescuers found the smoldering wreckage 30 km (20
miles) from Lagos on Sunday.
“The Federal Government announces with regret the
unfortunate air crash of Bellview Airlines … which resulted in the loss of
life of all passengers and crew on board,” the statement said.
Africa’s most populous nation will observe three days of
mourning, it added.
Official: All Feared Dead in Nigeria Crash
By DULUE MBACHU, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 51 minutes ago
LAGOS, Nigeria – A local government spokesman said Sunday that all 117 people on
board a passenger jet that crashed shortly after takeoff from Nigeria’s largest
city were feared dead. However, he cautioned there was confusion at the scene
and the reports couldn’t be verified.
The Boeing 737, which was en route to the capital, Abuja, lost contact with the
control tower five minutes after taking off from the international airport in
Lagos at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, said Jide Ibinola, a spokesman for the Federal
Airport Authority of Nigeria.
The flight is popular among Nigerians and expatriates shuttling between the two
cities.
Abilola Oloko, a spokesman for Oyo state where the plane crashed Saturday after
leaving Lagos, initially said that more than half of those on board had survived
and urged “all medical personnel” to rush to the scene. But he later asserted
that “the latest reports coming to us say that all the people on the plane
died.”
He blamed confusion at the crash scene for the conflicting reports.
Search teams located the downed aircraft, operated by Nigerian-run Bellview
Airlines, near the town of Kishi, 120 miles north of Lagos, police Spokesman
Bode Ojajuni said.
President Olusegun Obasanjo
