(Lagos, Nigeria) A Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 took off in bad weather from Lagos for the capital Abuja at 7:50pm local time (1450EDT) and quickly vanished from the radar. The flight carried 110 passengers and six crew members.
Hours later, the wreckage was found near the small community of Kishi, about 400km north of Lagos and on the flight path to Abuja. Military search and rescue teams were dispatched to the crash site. Initial reports indicate that 50 or more people survived the crash.
Notably, the plane carried several senior Nigerian officials and officials of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). No names will be released until the next of kin are notified.
[Update 1500EDT]
Update - NO SURVIVORS
It's now reported that nobody survived. According to Abilola Oloko, spokesman for Oyo state, all the people on board died. Confusion caused earlier inaccurate reports.
From Forbes.com:
No-one could have survived the impact when the Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 hit the ground at such speed that the wreckage was 'completely buried under ground,' NEMA [National Emergency Management Agency] spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye said.The number of people onboard was revised upward to 117, 111 passengers and six crew.
The statement followed a similar report by the Nigerian Red Cross, which was working with NEMA on the ground at the crash site in Lissa village, a short distance north of Lagos near the farming town of Otta.
'No survivors have been identified so far ... The plane is actually beyond recognition,' Abiodun Orebiyi, secretary general of the Nigerian Red Cross, told Agence France-Presse.
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