Pilot reported engine trouble before crash

The American pilot of the passenger jet that crashed in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday reported engine trouble shortly before the crash, airline officials said.

The Dana Air flight from Abuja to Lagos was in its final approach to Murtala Muhammed International Airport when the pilot radioed the control tower to declare an emergency, according an airline official.

All 153 people on board, including six crew members, and at least 10 on the ground were killed when the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 slammed into a two-story residential building in Lagos, officials said. And more are feared dead.

“The fear is that since it happened in a residential area, there may have been many people killed,” Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, told the Associated Press.

Emergency services recovered up to 80 bodies yesterday from the smouldering wreckage.

Nigeria’s president Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national mourning and ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash.

“This is really a horrific moment for us here and we sympathise and give condolences to all the victims and families. (There are no) words to express our pain and grief,” Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola said at the crash site.

“It is saddening, it is simply too much.”

Oke Osanyintolu, head of the National Emergency Management Agency for Lagos state, said that 80 bodies had been pulled out by 12 midday yesterday.

A crane was helping clear away some of the debris.

Search and rescue teams found what they believed to be the plane’s black box flight recorder and handed it over to police, said Bankole Abayomi, director search and rescue for the agency.

The cause of the crash is still unknown.

“They’re still busy recovering bodies. I believe some people were killed on the land as well as on the plane, though we don’t yet have a precise idea of numbers,” said Tunji Oketunbi, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau.

“Any claim about what caused the crash is pure speculation at the moment.”

Though large crowds were still gathering around the scene, they were more controlled than on Sunday, when thousands thronged the streets, blocking access to the emergency services.

“This is a crash site, it is an investigation site and we should keep our distance and allow the first responders to do their work,” Fashola told crowds.

Among the dead was the spokesman for the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Levi Ajuonuma, according to a passenger list.

Air crashes are not uncommon in Nigeria, Africa’s second biggest economy, which has had a poor airliner safety record.

“To be fair, the number of similar incidents has reduced in recent years,” said Samir Gadio, London-based analyst at Standard Bank.

“However, it was only a matter of time before something tragic happened. Security is poor on domestic flights, some of the planes are from another age, maintenance is questionable.”

Residents who witnessed the crash were still in shock.

* Additional reporting Reuters/ AP