Plane crashes in Nigeria, 103 dead

“I called the school and they confirmed there were 75 students on board,” said the mother, who was distraught and did not give her name.

The plane, travelling from Abuja to Port Harcourt, was operated by private Nigerian carrier Sosoliso.

Civil aviation spokesman Samuel Adurogboye said the plane was carrying 103 passengers and seven crew when it missed the runway on landing and burst into flames.

He said 103 people died. Seven survived the crash.

The cause of the crash was unknown but Adurogboye said the aircraft “ran into bad weather”.

Sosoliso flies many domestic routes daily. It is one of only two airlines that operate on the busy Abuja to Port Harcourt line.

The aviation industry of Africa’s most populous country has grown dramatically in the past decade, but it has been struck by a number of fatal air crashes.

The disaster comes seven weeks after a plane operated by another Nigerian airline, Bellview, crashed near the commercial capital Lagos killing all 117 people on board.

An inquiry is under way into the Bellview crash but there is no word yet on the cause and investigators have not found the voice or flight data recorders.

Experts say most of the country’s commercial fleet is over 20 years old and second hand, while runways close regularly due to poor maintenance.
—Reuters

No known problems with Chicago plane: airline

CHICAGO : A Southwest Airlines plane that skidded off a snowy runway and onto adjacent streets, killing a child in a car, was a relatively new aircraft with no history of problems, the airline has said. US government safety investigators and Southwest’s own team were at Midway Airport trying to determine what caused the Boeing 737 with 98 passengers and five crew to plunge through a fence and onto a busy street on Thursday. Midway Airport was hit with over 9 inches of snow but it was not known if that played a part in the mishap. Visibility was 400 to 800 metres with snow falling when the flight from Baltimore made an instrument landing, the airline said. REUTERS