Nigerian jet crashes with 110 aboard; 7 survive
Nigerian jet crashes with 110 aboard; 7 survive
Airliner misses runway, bursts into flames in southern city of Port Harcourt
LAGOS, Nigeria - At least 103 people died on Saturday when a Nigerian passenger plane carrying 110 people crashed on landing in the oil city of Port Harcourt and burst into flames, a Nigerian aviation official said.
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Sam Adurogboye said early reports indicated that seven people survived the crash of the Sosoliso Airlines DC-9.
"They were breathing and were taken to the hospital. They are responding to treatment," he said.
He did not say if the survivors were passengers or crew members.
A mother awaiting news of her child at the Port Harcourt airport said the plane was carrying secondary school students from a Jesuit college in the capital Abuja.
"I called the school and they confirmed there were 75 students on board," said the mother, who was distraught and did not give her name.
The plane, travelling from Abuja to Port Harcourt, was operated by private Nigerian carrier Sosoliso.
An airport worker said burned bodies lay across the landing area after the plane broke into pieces.
"The place where I'm standing now is scattered with corpses," the worker said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
A national aviation official said 60 bodies were recovered from the site and seven survivors had been found. He said the search continued for the rest of the planes' passengers and crew.
He said the plane missed the runway when landing and burst into flames.
Nigerian airline Aerocontractors issued a statement on Rhythm FM to "express sympathy with the families and friends for today's air crash in Port Harcourt."
Nigerian-owned Sosoliso Airlines was established in 1994. It began scheduled flights as a domestic airline in July 2000 and now flies to six Nigerian cities, according to its Web site.
Troubled aviation industry
The disaster comes seven weeks after a plane operated by another Nigerian airline, Bellview, crashed near the commercial capital Lagos killing all 117 people on board.
Investigators have been unable to find the flight data and voice recorders from the Bellview crash site near the village of Lissa, about 20 miles north of Lagos.
A private aircraft crashed on Nov. 28 in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna killing both people on board.
Experts say most of the country's commercial fleet is over 20 years old and second-hand, while runways close regularly due to poor maintenance.
