On Sunday, a passenger plane crashed in Africa's largest city of Lagos, Nigeria, killing over 150 people on board.
The Dana Air flight flying from Abuja to Lagos reported engine trouble and was seen flying low. Soon after it slammed into a furniture shop and an apartment building in Lagos and burst into flames, killing the suspected 153 people on board. A spokesman for Nigeria's national emergency management agency said there were likely more casualties on the ground, but the number was unknown. The plane appeared to land on its belly as opposed to taking a nose dive.
According to USA Today, the nose of the plane was embedded into the three-story apartment building, causing damage to one part of the building. The crash left a smoky scene of leftover plane parts in the densely populated city.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw parts of the plane's seat signs scattered around. He said that firefighter were trying to put out the flames and looking for bodies. They carried at least one corpse from the apartment building that was continuing to crumble as it burned. Firefighters tried to put out the smoldering flames of a jet engine and carried at least one corpse from the building that continued to crumble.
Several thousand people gathered around to see what happened.
"I don't think there will be any survivors," witness Praise Richard told the Associated Press. "It would take a miracle."
Richard was watching a movie when he heard a loud explosion that sounded like a bomb. He ran outside to find billowing smoke and flames at the crash site.
Several fire trucks and more than 50 rescue crewmembers attempted to control the scene. The Nigerian Red Cross and Nigeria's air crash safety investigators also arrived.
The plane was headed to the nearby Lagos' international airport. It is a major hub for West Africa, with 2.3 million passengers passing through it in 2009, according to the most recent statistics provided by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
In August 2010, the U.S. announced it had given Nigeria the FAA's Category 1 status, its top safety rating that allows the nation's domestic carriers to fly directly to the U.S.
Nigeria has a spotty aviation record as air crashes are not uncommon in the country. Just on Saturday, a Nigerian Allied Cargo airplane (also from Lagos) crash-landed in Ghana, killing at least 10 people. Sunday's crash is the worst since 1992, when a military transport plane crashed into a swamp shortly after takeoff from Lagos, killing all 163 people onboard.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
