Wreckage of Nigeria crash plane found

A passenger plane carrying 114 people crashed after take off from Nigeria's biggest city, officials said today. There was no immediate word on survivors.

Lagos police Spokesman Bode Ojajuni said search teams located the downed Bellview Airlines jet in Oyo State, at a crash site 120 miles north of the city of Lagos, from where the plane departed on Saturday.

"Our men have spotted the wreckage of the aircraft," said Ojajuni, without giving further details.

The Boeing 737 aircraft, operated by Nigerian-run Bellview, lost contact with the control tower five minutes after taking off from the international airport in Lagos last night, said Jide Ibinola, a spokesman for the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria.

Pilots issued a distress call before the plane disappeared from radar about 15 miles south of Lagos over the Atlantic Ocean, state television reported.

Most aircraft take off from Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, in the direction of the Atlantic, and turn back toward the coast.

At least 108 passengers and six crew members were aboard, Ibinola said. Their nationalities were not immediately known.

Ibinola said the craft was headed to the capital, Abuja, on what was supposed to have been a 50-minute flight. There was no immediate indication the crash was terrorism-related.

Bellview, one of about a dozen local airlines plying Nigeria's skies, is a privately owned Nigerian company that operates a fleet of mostly Boeing 737s on internal routes and throughout West Africa. Bellview first began flying about 10 years ago and has not suffered a crash before.