NIGERIA: A Nigerian passenger plane crashed on Sunday with 153 people on board and there were no signs of survivors, rescue worker said

Record ID: 235668

  • Title: NIGERIA: A Nigerian passenger plane crashed on Sunday with 153 people on board and there were no signs of survivors, rescue worker said
  • Date: 4th June 2012
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (JUNE 3, 2012) (REUTERS) CROWD AT THE SCENE OF PLANE CRASH RESIDENTS AND RESCUE WORKERS HOLDING UP A WATER PIPE, HELPING PUT OUT THE FLAMES WRECKED PLANE TAIL ENGINE PART ON THE GROUND RESIDENTS CALLING FOR WATER TO PUT OUT BURNING TAIL VARIOUS OF SMOULDERING FUSELAGE VARIOUS OF SMOKE BILLOWING FROM SITE ENGINE PART ON THE GROUND RESIDENTS HOLDING RUBBER WATER PIPE OVER SMOULDERING DEBRIS (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOMITOPE JOHNSON, FACTORY WORKER, SAYING: "I was inside the factory at the time it happened, you understand? This is a warehouse (where we keep) all these secondary school books, and we are doing furniture here, that's all." ONLOOKERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) GIFT ONIGBO, STUDENT, SAYING: "My younger ones, the younger ones, they were outside playing ball, and they were shouting that I should leave - look up because the plane was about to land on top of my head so I had to just lift a little, and the plane immediately it passed, when the plane passed it bended and we thought the plane was going to land (UNCLEAR) and the next thing we just heard a sound, the next thing we heard a sound, we noticed the plane has already crashed." RESIDENTS GATHERED ON SITE
  • Embargoed: 19th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVAEVWX8G0TDC0JGUZWEDOAG7AM5
  • Story Text: A passenger plane carrying nearly 150 people crashed into a densely populated part of Lagos on Sunday (June 3), in what looked like a major disaster in Nigeria's commercial hub.
    There was no official word on casualties but the likelihood of finding survivors amid the wreckage seemed small. Thousands of people crowded around a smouldering two-story tin-roofed building into which the aircraft had plunged.
    The plane, operated by privately owned domestic carrier Dana Air with 147 people on board, was coming into land on a flight from the capital Abuja, officials said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media.
    Police used truncheons to beat back the massed onlookers, trying to make a path for rescue services, but the crowd was so large that ambulances, sirens wailing, were unable to get through.
    The plane burst into flames after hitting the building in the Agege suburb of the city, not far from Lagos's Murtala Muhammed Airport.
    Temitope Johnson, a factory worker said he was in the warehouse near the crash site in a ramshackle part of the town where tin-roofed houses line mud roads.
    "I was inside the factory at the time it happened, you understand? This is a ware house (where we keep) all these secondary school books, and we are doing furniture here, that's all," he told Reuters.
    23 year-old Gift Ongibo said she was busy doing the laundry when the plane swooped and tilted towards where she was standing.
    "My younger ones, the younger ones, they were outside playing ball, and they were shouting that I should leave - look up because the plane was about to land on top of my head so I had to just lift a little, and the plane immediately it passed, when the plane passed it bended and we thought the plane was going to land (UNCLEAR) and the next thing we just heard a sound, the next thing we heard a sound, we noticed the plane has already crashed," she said.
    Smoke billowed from the windows and roof of the building that had somehow survived being completely demolished by the crash. Locals climbed on top of the walls to try to look in. Bits of the plane were scattered on the muddy ground.
    Neither Dana Air nor the civil aviation authority were available for comment.
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