Nigeria: Probe launched into plane crash that killed 117

Investigators searched the still-smouldering wreckage of a jetliner today, seeking flight-data recorders and ultimately the cause of a crash in the Nigerian bush that officials said killed all 117 passengers and crew aboard.

Nigeria announced a three-day, nationwide mourning period for victims of Saturday’s crash of the Bellview Airlines Boeing 737-200, which ploughed a deep crater into the ground near Lissa shortly after take off from Lagos airport, 30 miles to the south.

The plane had been on its way from Nigeria’s biggest city to the capital, Abuja. “We can say all the people on board the aircraft perished,” Information Minister Frank Nweke told state radio. Small bits of fuselage, human remains and clothing were strewn in a nearby copse of trees. A hand and leg lay on the ground.

No identifiable bodies could be seen, but the smell of death hung close.

Acrid smoke still curled from an eight-metre deep pit as investigators picked through nearby wreckage, looking for flight-data recorders. Airline officials said 117 people had been on board – 111 passengers and six crew members.