LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) — A small plane has crashed in the water off a beach in the Nigerian city of Lagos, and a search and recovery operation will begin at dawn Saturday, emergency officials told CNN.
There was no initial word on casualties and it is not known how many people were in the craft.
Wreckage has not surfaced at the site of the crash, less than a kilometer from the shore.
Scores of onlookers were at the beach, but night fell five hours after the crash occurred without crews appearing at Goshen Beach, the scene of the crash.
“We were working when we saw a plane turning and twisting in the air. Then suddenly it plunged into the ocean and we heard a loud explosion,” construction worker Sikiru Akanbi told Reuters.
Search and recovery operations will begin at sunrise Saturday.
Navy divers and the Nigerian Maritime Authority will be involved in the search.
Initially, witnesses said the craft was a 25-seat charter helicopter.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country witnessed its last major plane crash in May 2002 when a BAC 1-11-500 plane operated by EAS Airlines crashed in Kano, killing more than 100 people.
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