Nigerian 737 Crash (Merged)

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Nigerian airliner 'has crashed'

A passenger plane flying from Lagos to Abuja in Nigeria has crashed with 116 people on board, state radio says.
The aircraft's pilot sent a distress signal just after taking off in stormy weather, Reuters news agency reports.

Several high-ranking officials are said to have been travelling on Bellview Airlines flight 210, which left Lagos at 2045 (1945 GMT) on Saturday.

Police helicopters are hunting for the wreckage. It is not known if any passengers survived the crash.

Bellview Airlines is a private Nigerian company, that flies routes throughout west Africa, mainly using Boeing 737s.

The airline is popular with foreigners and wealthy Nigerians.

Hunt for wreckage

Planes flying from Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, to the capital, Abuja, normally take off over the sea and then circle back inland for the 50-minute flight to Abuja.

It was initially thought the plane may have plunged into the Atlantic but officials have now told the AFP news agency they were hunting for the wreckage inland.

"I don't think anyone could have survived if it went down over land," Nigerian Maritime Authority official, Tidjani Bako, told the agency.

He said the plane was likely to have crashed between the cities of Ibadan and Ilorin, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Lagos.

Nigeria has one of the world's worst air safety records, having been the scene of several crashes and near-misses.

NIGERIA PLANE CRASHES
May 2002: Plane operated by EAS Airlines crashes in Kano, killing 148 people - half of them on the ground
November 1996: 142 people die when Boeing 727 owned by Nigeria's ADC airline plunges into lagoon 85 km (55 miles) from Lagos
September 1992: 158 people are killed when military transport plane goes down near Lagos

An Air France plane was badly damaged after striking a herd of cows while trying to land in the oil city of Port Harcourt last month. No passengers were hurt.

BBC news link here

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18 years 11 months

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Nigerian 737 crash Sunday.

Reports are coming in that a 737 crashed into the sea shortly after take off from Lagos. The pilot reported an emergency, about 114 passengers including dignitaries. Lets hope for the best.

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The flight number is 210 and the aircraft belongs to Belleview Airlines who have not had any trouble in ten years.

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The plane has been located on land and there are survivors. The plane is a B.737-200A. There is a suggestion that the airport radar was turned off which would explain why it took so long to fin d the plane.

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Now reporting that there are dozens of survivors, great news. Bellview Airlines operates five 737's and two 767's. The average age of the 737's is twenty five years :(

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BBC now reporting no survivors :( :(

Awful news

Kev

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Agree Kev. Looking at the crash site it would be difficult to imagine any survivors in this situation. Just shows how rumours start!

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Yeah, terrible crash scene.

The information coming out of the official sources was a bit 'scatty'.

First it was lost at sea, then land.Then it was reported loads of survivors, now clearly not.Poor souls.

Kev

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BBC News 24 say that aircraft lost radio contact in a "massive electrical storm". Red Cross has confirmed Plane was totally destroyed on impact approx 24km north of Lagos.

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I wonder why the plane was taking off in a "massive electrical storm".

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No bodies or black boxes yet.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200511010592.html

The excavation for the black boxes started yesterday at the crash site.

http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=11/08/2005&qrTitle=No%20human%20body%20found%20at%20Bellview%20plane%20crash%20site&qrColumn=FRONT%20PAGE

The paper reports that no bodies have been found at the crash site and the black boxes have yet to be recovered.

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They certainly don't rush things in third world countries

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http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=33474

It doesn't look as if the black boxes are going to be found. They are suggesting that they may have been blown out of the plane if there was an aerial explosion, but this would mean debris would be over a larger area than the crash site that they were excavating. :confused:

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www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-21 21:41:24

LAGOS, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Another air disaster was averted in Nigeria as a flight operated by privately owned EAS Airlines was aborted 20 minutes after take-off in the country's capital Abuja, local media reported on Wednesday.

The official News Agency of Nigeria said the pilot had complained of a faulty fuel filter, while The Punch newspaper quoted passengers as saying the engine of the Lagos-bound aircraft developed problem 20 minutes into the journey on Tuesday afternoon.

"The aircraft initially found it difficult to land in Abuja, but eventually landed after hovering for 10 minutes," the newspaper said. There were 100 passengers and five crew members on board.

On Monday, a Nigerian plane operated by Bellview Airlines made an emergency landing at the Accra international airport in Ghana after a failure in its hydraulic system. None of the 63 passengers and four crew was hurt.

The incidents followed three other air crashes in the past two months that claims over 200 lives in the west African country, whose sky was dominated by "flying coffins" in service for more than 20 years or even over 30 year. Enditem

Thought Bellview had been grounded, thought 737's had been grounded, maybe they are all 'hovering', waiting to land.