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Nigerian jet crash kills at least 103
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-11 08:37
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - A Nigerian jetliner filled with schoolchildren going
home for Christmas crashed Saturday while landing during a lightning storm in
this delta oil port. At least 103 people were killed, officials said.
An image taken from
television footage shows rescue workers at a crash site after a plane
crash in Nigeria December 10, 2005. [Reuters] | A
spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo called the disaster "a national
tragedy."
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Sam Adurogboye said early reports
indicated that seven people survived the crash of the Sosoliso Airlines'
McDonnell Douglas DC-9. Flight 1145 left the capital, Abuja.
"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.
In Lagos, Sosoliso spokesman Simbo Olorufemi would only confirm that the
crash had occurred, saying, "Most of the passengers might have lost their
lives."
The crash was Nigeria's second airplane accident in seven weeks �� raising
questions about air safety in Africa's most populous nation.
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.
Frantic family members at the airport said the plane was carrying 75 pupils
heading home from Abuja for Christmas. The pupils, students at the Loyola Jesuit
School, were between 12 and 16 years old.
"It is a national tragedy for us," Obasanjo spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode said.
"We need to take all the necessary measures to make sure this sort of thing
stops happening."
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