Nigerian airliner ‘has crashed’
A passenger plane flying from Lagos to Abuja in Nigeria has crashed with 116 people on board, state radio says.
The aircraft’s pilot sent a distress signal just after taking off in stormy weather, Reuters news agency reports.Several high-ranking officials are said to have been travelling on Bellview Airlines flight 210, which left Lagos at 2045 (1945 GMT) on Saturday.
Police helicopters are hunting for the wreckage. It is not known if any passengers survived the crash.
Bellview Airlines is a private Nigerian company, that flies routes throughout west Africa, mainly using Boeing 737s.
The airline is popular with foreigners and wealthy Nigerians.
Hunt for wreckage
Planes flying from Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, to the capital, Abuja, normally take off over the sea and then circle back inland for the 50-minute flight to Abuja.
It was initially thought the plane may have plunged into the Atlantic but officials have now told the AFP news agency they were hunting for the wreckage inland.
“I don’t think anyone could have survived if it went down over land,” Nigerian Maritime Authority official, Tidjani Bako, told the agency.
He said the plane was likely to have crashed between the cities of Ibadan and Ilorin, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Lagos.
Nigeria has one of the world’s worst air safety records, having been the scene of several crashes and near-misses.
NIGERIA PLANE CRASHES
May 2002: Plane operated by EAS Airlines crashes in Kano, killing 148 people – half of them on the ground
November 1996: 142 people die when Boeing 727 owned by Nigeria’s ADC airline plunges into lagoon 85 km (55 miles) from Lagos
September 1992: 158 people are killed when military transport plane goes down near LagosAn Air France plane was badly damaged after striking a herd of cows while trying to land in the oil city of Port Harcourt last month. No passengers were hurt.
BBC news link here
By: Canpark - 22nd December 2005 at 16:34
heh.
Well the nigerian authorities has gone and grounded all 737s in their airspace. A very short sighted and premature move.
The Nigerians wasted time and money as a result of poor safety, sad.
By: Bmused55 - 22nd December 2005 at 07:16
OMG, these Nigerian airlines crash just as much as Indian MiG-21s.
heh.
Well the nigerian authorities has gone and grounded all 737s in their airspace. A very short sighted and premature move.
By: Canpark - 22nd December 2005 at 05:28
OMG, these Nigerian airlines crash just as much as Indian MiG-21s.
By: Newforest - 21st December 2005 at 20:57
www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-21 21:41:24
LAGOS, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) — Another air disaster was averted in Nigeria as a flight operated by privately owned EAS Airlines was aborted 20 minutes after take-off in the country’s capital Abuja, local media reported on Wednesday.
The official News Agency of Nigeria said the pilot had complained of a faulty fuel filter, while The Punch newspaper quoted passengers as saying the engine of the Lagos-bound aircraft developed problem 20 minutes into the journey on Tuesday afternoon.
“The aircraft initially found it difficult to land in Abuja, but eventually landed after hovering for 10 minutes,” the newspaper said. There were 100 passengers and five crew members on board.
On Monday, a Nigerian plane operated by Bellview Airlines made an emergency landing at the Accra international airport in Ghana after a failure in its hydraulic system. None of the 63 passengers and four crew was hurt.
The incidents followed three other air crashes in the past two months that claims over 200 lives in the west African country, whose sky was dominated by “flying coffins” in service for more than 20 years or even over 30 year. Enditem
Thought Bellview had been grounded, thought 737’s had been grounded, maybe they are all ‘hovering’, waiting to land.
By: Newforest - 26th November 2005 at 09:14
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw1132894440924B252
In the absence of the black boxes which investigators believe may have been destroyed in the crash, they are leaning towards the lightning strike theory.
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October 23, 2005 at 8:19 am