michy:

thank God four people survived it.

CNN told us Seven.

The funeral of the sultan is on-going on TV right now. I hear that the son who is a senator as well as the deputy gov of sokoto state are among d dead. Na wa o!

I have to retract my first post. It seems that there were survivors. Sorry about the mix-up.


ABUJA, Nigeria (CNN) -- A Nigerian airliner carrying 104 people crashed Sunday near the Abuja airport shortly after takeoff and burst into flames, airport and government officials told CNN.

A hospital official told Nigerian television channel NTA that his facility was treating seven survivors.

The Boeing 737, operated by Nigerian airline ADC, was still on fire at the edge of the runway hours after it crashed around noon (6 a.m. ET).

Debris from the shattered plane, body parts and personal belongings of passengers were strewn over an area the size of a soccer field where the plane went down in a wooded area, according to The Associated Press.

Rescue workers pulled burned remains from the smoldering fuselage, and about 50 bodies were gathered in a corner of the site, while the tail of the plane hung from a tree, The AP reported. (Watch the scene at hospital near crash site -- :55)

The aircraft was heading to the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto and may have been carrying the Muslim state's highest ranking official, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammadu Maccido, according to a senior source with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's office.

Flight 53 was scheduled to take off from the Nigerian capital Abuja at 10:35 a.m. and land in Sokoto an hour later, according to ADC's Web site.

Nigeria has a poor air safety record, with at least 11 crashes since 1995 that have killed more than 500 people.

The last crash involving ADC happened in November 1996 and killed all 146 people aboard the Boeing 727. That flight went down in Imota, Nigeria, after the pilot lost control of the plane while trying to avoid a head-on collision with another aircraft.

Third fatal crash in 12 months
Sunday's crash is the third fatal crash for Nigeria in the past 12 months.

On October 23, 2005, a Bellview Airlines plane went down in bad weather near Lagos, killing all 117 people on board.

An aircraft operated by Sosoliso Airlines crashed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on December 10, killing all 108 on board, including many schoolchildren on their way home for the holidays.

Shortly after that crash, Obasanjo temporarily grounded Sosoliso and many leaders of Nigeria's civil aviation industry were fired.

Months later, Nigeria's aviation minister ruled that the plane crashed because it ran into wind shear during landing, according to a news release from Sosoliso Airlines.

Two weeks ago, ADC's chief executive officer Capt. Mfon Udom told a Nigerian newspaper he expected his airline to be recertified by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to meet international safety standards by the end of 2006.

I DONT KNOW IF DA NEWS HAS REACHED MANY PEOPLE, BUT I JUST READ A BREAKING NEWS THAT ANOTHER PLANE HAS CRASH LANDED NEAR ABUJA TODAY, THAT MAKES IT THE 3RD PLANE CRASH IN 13 MONTHS, MAY GOD SAVE NIGERIA.

DIGNITARIES WERE ONBOARD, THE SULTAN OF SOKOTO ALHAJI MUHAMMAD MACIDDO AND HIS SON WERE KILLED

A FEW SURVIVORS ARE HANGING BY A THREAD,

MY DEEPEST SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF VICTIMS, MAY GOD GIVE US THE STRENGTH TO ACCEPT WHAT WE CANNOT CHANGE, AMIN,


MORE NEWS ON THIS PAGE >>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6096420.stm

MAY GOD HELP NIGERIA,

May the souls of the departed rest in peace.
The Nigerian Aviation industry is a direct reflection of what is wrong with our country. It reflects our poor culture of maintenance and or investments in infrastructure. Planes do fly in heavy snow and or rain in other countries, this is not the 50s, why do we always blame this mishaps on nature instead of our short comings. So it was rainy. Planes are designed nowadays to fly in all weather conditions. Yes, sometimes they do do crash but not with the frequency of crashes in our country. I think the problem may be the fact that we start out with old and ill serviced equipments, both the planes and the airports are sub-standard. In a country where individuals boast of having millions and billions in acounts (local and foreign), its a shame that our infrstructure is non existent. The roads are another story, it now takes 10 hours to go from Benin City to Lagos from 3 hours of a few years ago. How long is this backward trend going to continue. Politics seems to be the only business existing in my country and the so called politicians are only there for themselves and not the populace. One question I often ask is how many members of the US congress or British parliament have houses in Nigeria. When are we going to learn. I pray everyday that our oil should run out so that we may go back to the progress we were making before the course of oil. Just my 2 cents worth of vent

seems like plane crashes are a way of life(or is it a way of death?) in nigeria. if the country did'nt have such terrible politicians, who squander, and most times plunder the coffers of the treasury, then perhaps the country could discard the old fleet. countries with less resource have a better aviation record, such is the pity for nigeria.

More reports on the ADC crashed airliner


By BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press Writer

ABUJA, Nigeria - A Nigerian airliner carrying 104 people, including the man regarded as a spiritual leader of Nigeria's Sunni Muslims, crashed in a storm Sunday after taking off from the airport in Abuja. Most of those on board were feared dead, but at least six people survived.

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The Sunni leader was among those killed in the third passenger jet crash in Nigeria in less than a year.

Debris from the shattered plane, body parts and personal belongings of passengers were strewn over a wooded area the size of a soccer field where the plane went down, about two miles from the end of the runway at the airport in the capital of the oil-rich West African nation.

Smoke rose from the plane's mangled and smoldering fuselage as rescue workers pulled out burned corpses. About 50 bodies were gathered in a corner of the site. The tail of the plane was hanging from a tree.

Sam Adurogboye, an Aviation Ministry spokesman, said the 23-year-old Boeing 737-2B7 crashed just one minute after takeoff. He said the cause of the crash was unknown.

Witnesses said it was raining around the time the aircraft took off. Rains subsided later, but skies remained overcast.

Adurogboye said the plane was carrying 104 passengers and crew members, and he knew of six survivors. "Obviously the rest are feared dead," he said.

Emergency workers recovered the last of the bodies about six hours after the crash.

The aircraft, owned by the private Nigerian airline Aviation Development Co., was headed to the northwest city of Sokoto, about 500 miles northwest of Abuja, state radio said.

In a radio announcement, the Sokoto state government said the sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido, died in the crash. Maccido was the head of the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, which determines when Muslim fasts should begin and end and decides policy issues for Nigeria's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims.

Mustapha Shehu, spokesman for the Sokoto state government, said the sultan's son, Muhammed Maccido, a senator, also was on the flight, along with Abdulrahman Shehu Shagari, son of former Nigerian President Shehu Shagari, who was in office between 1979 and 1983.

About half of Nigeria's 130 million people are Muslims. The country is the most populous in Africa and the continent's leading oil exporter.

At the airport in Abuja, security officials tried to contain a crush of people seeking information about friends or family aboard the plane.

President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered an immediate investigation into the cause of the crash, his spokeswoman Remi Oyo said in a statement.

Oyo said Obasanjo was "deeply and profoundly shocked and saddened , he offers condolences for all Nigerians, especially family, friends and associates of those who may have been on board."

The Nigerian airline ADC last suffered a crash in November 1996, when one of its jets plunged into a lagoon outside Nigeria's main city, Lagos, killing all 143 aboard.

Last year, two planes flying domestic routes crashed within seven weeks of each other, killing 224 people.

Nigeria's air industry is notoriously unsafe. On Oct. 22, 2005, a Boeing 737-200 plane belonging to Bellview airlines crashed soon after takeoff from the country's main city of Lagos, killing all 117 people aboard. On Dec. 10, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 plane operated by Sosoliso Airlines crashed while approaching the oil city of Port Harcourt, killing 107 people, most of them schoolchildren going home for Christmas.

Earlier this month, authorities released a report blaming the Sosoliso crash on bad weather and pilot error. The investigation of the Bellview crash is still continuing.

After last year's air crashes, Obasanjo vowed to overhaul Nigeria's airline industry, blaming some of the industry's problems on corruption. Airlines were subjected to checks for air-worthiness and some planes were grounded.

This is quite un called for, is bad for a country like ours, the so called giant of Africa, for how long should we continue like this? look at Ghana, Zamba, Namimbia and other african countries u never hear such frequncy in planecrash, what do we do? Where do we go from here? should we fold our arms keep watching our belove fellows die in aircrash? Something drastic has to be done, if we cant manage our aviation sector, why not invite the foreign exparts to come and spare head the affairs of the sector, while we still learn for some time, including the security and monitoring of airport environment. Please lets join hand together to put an end to this ugly incudence in our country.

this is really really sad

@ Topic:  

I am so very saddened to hear of this most recent tragedy in Nigeria.  Please know that my thoughts and prayers as well as the people in my country are with the people of your country as you face this disaster.

I must ask, there are so many people on this website.  Did any of you know personally, or are any of you related to somebody who was on board the plane?

pls wants Nigeria turning to

what the i've been watching rstv all day and i heard nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whats all this with plane crashes?!

theres so many threads on this topic alone.
abi is this another crash

Why is everybody opposed to OBJ dying in plane crash?
Few weeks ago all the military big wigs perished
We better investigate who's behind this take off crashes.
I fear for this country oooooo

@Kimba,
There is NUTHIN inherently WRONG with a 23 year old aircraft!
When you conduct an accident investigation, your objective is to unearth/seek out the ROOT CAUSES,  As a trained Safety engineer, most times in my personal experience and in more case studies , these Root causes often end up in the domain of Management System Failures,  Do you know that till date some WWII spitfires (circa 1945)are still legitly permitted to fly??
I'm not advocating prehistoric flying machines but the main point is that the International aviation industry has a lot standards to maintain safety in the skies. It now behoves the local aviation regulatory authorities to MONITOR and ENFORCE these standards. So-called A, B, C etc etc checks are designed to make sure that all the systems in any aircraft are reborn after certain air-miles. Combine these with high standards in airport safety, meteorological info services, (and razor sharp incident investigation agencies) all combine to make safe skies.
I regularly fly offshore and from Lagos to my ops state but i must confess that I feel most safe in naija airspace when I'm on-board the rather old-model dual-propeller engine (yes, its not jet powered!) plane that belongs and is operated by the firm I work for. As an American company I am privy of the rigorous safety systems in place to ensure that American and other lives' that are ferried offshore everyday are not jeopardized. It flies very low, its very noisy, but since my company has been in ops in naija the aviation dept has never recorded a crash!
PLS PLS PLS, only a sincere reform of the Aviation Regulatory Industry will stop this bloodletting trend.

[b]SAD SAD NEWS COMING FROM HOME YET AGAIN. ONE THOUGHT THAT KEEPS HUNTING ME IS THE IMAGINATION THAT ALL THESE COULD BE A SETUP. IN NIGERIA ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, & SINCE  RESPECT FOR LIVES & PROPERTIES IS NON-EXISTENCE, THESE BAD BAD POLITICIAN CAN-IN THEIR BID TO TARGET AN OPPONENT- KILL ANYONE ON THEIR PATH. A PROBING LOOK AT EACH OF THESE CRASHES REVEALS THAT ITS THE CREAM OF THE CROP THAT IS AFFECTED EACH TIME. ONE MAY BE TEMPTED TO LOOK IN THE DIRECTION OF SOME CERTAIN RETIRED GENERALS FOR POSSIBLE CLUES,   YOU MAY ALSO WISH TO ALSO LOOK TOWARDS SOME CERTAIN SOLID POLITICAL ENEMIES OF MR PRESIDENT, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU CALL TO MIND THE CRASH THAT WIPED OUT CERTAIN TOP ARMY GUYS(MOST OF `EM WERE OBJ's MAIN MEN). GUYS IS MY CONSPIRACY THEORIES MAKING ANY SENSE? IF ANYONE WANTS TO GET RID OF OBJ SO BADLY, WON`T IT MAKE SENSE IF THEY 1ST ATTEMPT TO ISOLATE HIS INNER-CIRCLE OF TRUST & AFTER THEIR DIRTY JOB IS DONE, THEN PRESENT HIM WITH A BRAND NEW CIRCLE OF TRUST WHOSE LOYALTY TO HIM WILL BE SERIOUSLY IN DOUBT?

ANOTHER ANGLE I TURN TO IS THE LONG TIME REPERCUSSION OF ADVANCED FEE FRAUD. WHAT HAS 419 GOT TO DO WITH IT, YOU MAY ASK? WELL, WHAT WILL U DO, IF SOME NIGERIANS DUPED U OF SAY $500,000 OR CLEARED UR CORPORATIONS NET ASSET LIKE THEY DID WITH THAT BRAZILLIAN BANK (ABOUT $400MILLION DOLLARS).
WHAT IF THESE GUYS GOT TIRED OF LOSING TO NIGERIANS, AND NOW DECIDED TO USE SOME INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS ON US, TARGETING AS MUCH PEOPLE AS IS POSSIBLE. COS I BELIEVE THAT IF THESE ARE JUST TECHNICAL FAULTS, THEN OUR FAA MAY BE ABLE TO DETECT IT DURING THEIR INVESTIGATIONS, HOWEVER IF THERE BE ANY FORM OF INTERNATIONAL ESPIONAGE/INTELLIGENCE/MOB/U NAME IT INVOLVED IN THIS SHIT, THEN WE R MOST LIKELY DOOMED, COS OUR NATIONAL COUNTER INTELLIGENCE EFFORT IS NOT SOLID ENOUGH TO MANOURVER THIS TASK.

SEE WE JUST LOST ANOTHER OF OUR TOP BRASS OPERATORS, EITHER TO SOME TECHNICAL FAULTS, OR TO A PLANNED MASS-MURDER BY POLITICAL ENEMIES OR AGGRIEVED INTERNATIONAL VICTIMS OF NIGERIAN 419 OPERATORS.
JUST THINK ABOUT IT, [/b]

OBJ and the Aviation minister weren't on board

Na wa o. I think all local airlines should be banned, till when they are able to afford brand new planes

hey guys, i think we can still take some positives away from this latest aircrash!

1. I had no idea the muslims in Nigeria where Sunni, now we know! Any shi'ites?

2. It is all part of the "painful reform" process being initiated by this corruption-free dictatocracy! We should be prepared to make sacrifices for the good of tomorrow. Like Our Commander in Thief of the Armed Forces, Pres Olusani Abachanjo would always say, there is no gain without pain!

3. At least now that air travel is now as safe as travelling by road, those whose pockets are bulging with our public funds will sit up and take notice! That is until they can figure out how to travel in space and then they return to abdicating their responsibilities to the people!

All hail the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

princezino:

@Kimba,
There is NUTHIN inherently WRONG with a 23 year old aircraft!
When you conduct an accident investigation, your objective is to unearth/seek out the ROOT CAUSES,  As a trained Safety engineer, most times in my personal experience and in more case studies , these Root causes often end up in the domain of Management System Failures,  Do you know that till date some WWII spitfires (circa 1945)are still legitly permitted to fly??
I'm not advocating prehistoric flying machines but the main point is that the International aviation industry has a lot standards to maintain safety in the skies. It now behoves the local aviation regulatory authorities to MONITOR and ENFORCE these standards. So-called A, B, C etc etc checks are designed to make sure that all the systems in any aircraft are reborn after certain air-miles. Combine these with high standards in airport safety, meteorological info services, (and razor sharp incident investigation agencies) all combine to make safe skies.
I regularly fly offshore and from Lagos to my ops state but i must confess that I feel most safe in naija airspace when I'm on-board the rather old-model dual-propeller engine (yes, its not jet powered!) plane that belongs and is operated by the firm I work for. As an American company I am privy of the rigorous safety systems in place to ensure that American and other lives' that are ferried offshore everyday are not jeopardized. It flies very low, its very noisy, but since my company has been in ops in naija the aviation debt has never recorded a crash!
PLS PLS PLS, only a sincere reform of the Aviation Regulatory Industry will stop this bloodletting trend.

Spot on there princezino, the USAF has alot of aircraft even older than that still in service and there not falling out of the sky. However we should wait to see what caused the crash before making accusations.

If they could be self centered, wayward and inconsiderate enough to impose a ban on importation of cars above 8 years into the contry which actually is of no negative impact to the bogous life style they live with our money why the need to allow a 23 years air craft to fly on our air space!

may their soul rest in heaven!

as long as this superman lives someone got to go!

According to CNN.Com,

Nigeria has a poor air safety record, with at least 11 crashes since 1995 that have killed more than 500 people.

The last crash involving ADC happened in November 1996 and killed all 146 people aboard the Boeing 727. That flight went down in Imota, Nigeria, after the pilot lost control of the plane while trying to avoid a head-on collision with another aircraft.

Third fatal crash in 12 months
Sunday's crash is the third fatal crash for Nigeria in the past 12 months.

On October 23, 2005, a Bellview Airlines plane went down in bad weather near Lagos, killing all 117 people on board.

An aircraft operated by Sosoliso Airlines crashed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on December 10, killing all 108 on board, including many schoolchildren on their way home for the holidays.

Shortly after that crash, Obasanjo temporarily grounded Sosoliso and many leaders of Nigeria's civil aviation industry were fired.

Months later, Nigeria's aviation minister ruled that the plane crashed because it ran into wind shear during landing, according to a news release from Sosoliso Airlines.

Two weeks ago, ADC's chief executive officer Capt. Mfon Udom told a Nigerian newspaper he expected his airline to be recertified by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to meet international safety standards by the end of 2006.

CNN's Jeff Koinange contributed to this report.

May their souls rest in perfect peace

amen!

omg!!! am sooooooooo scared right now am shaking.  

This is terrible

Nigeria does not have a maintenance culture and that is the cause of these incidents.

I don't know how Nigeria is supposed to attract investors with unsafe aviation. It's just awful

I've just finished reading a business magazine and the only mention that Nigeria gets is when a Nigerian living in LA gets arrested for possessing over 100,000 SS numbers with the intent to commit fraud!

We've had the plane crash in Nigeria which is sad enough but what made me to be more angry is the picture posted by AP which actually show the dead bodies of the passengers in which one of them is half naked.
I wonder, is it that there's no respect for Nigerians anymore or there's no more respect for the victims and their families?Things like this cannot happen in the western part of the world because its not everything that you'll do and get away with it.Or am I taking this issue too personal?

May the souls of the departed rest in peace.
The Nigerian Aviation industry is a direct reflection of what is wrong with our country. It reflects our poor culture of maintenance and or investments in infrastructure. Planes do fly in heavy snow and or rain in other countries, this is not the 50s, why do we always blame this mishaps on nature instead of our short comings. So it was rainy. Planes are designed nowadays to fly in all weather conditions. Yes, sometimes they do do crash but not with the frequency of crashes in our country. I think the problem may be the fact that we start out with old and ill serviced equipments, both the planes and the airports are sub-standard. In a country where individuals boast of having millions and billions in acounts (local and foreign), its a shame that our infrstructure is non existent. The roads are another story, it now takes 10 hours to go from Benin City to Lagos from 3 hours of a few years ago. How long is this backward trend going to continue. Politics seems to be the only business existing in my country and the so called politicians are only there for themselves and not the populace. One question I often ask is how many members of the US congress or British parliament have houses in Nigeria. When are we going to learn. why is it that we just cant get anything right in nigeria? my heart bleeds for this nation cos as for now we are a hopless case

DOn't worry, even without terrorist attacks and world trade centres, we still hijack and kill our people. I hope we get to the root of this matter cos 2wice beaten?

It's becoming a norm, people are not so surprised, at least from reactions, it's like going on strike or fuel scarcity or door bells ringing.

On my block.

This is such a tragic event. When are we going to clean up our aviation safety problems in Nigeria ? May God bless all those that passed away.