Contradicts Earlier Reports Of As Many As 50 Survivors
The Nigerian government has released a statement retracting
earlier reports of survivors of the Saturday night accident
involving a Bellview Airlines B737-200 that went down after takeoff
in an electrical storm. Officials now state all 117 passengers,
including one American, onboard the doomed airliner died.
"The Federal Government announces with regret the unfortunate
air crash of Bellview Airlines... which resulted in the loss of
life of all passengers and crew on board," the statement said.
The news came as rescuers struggled to gather remains of the
victims at the accident site amid smoldering debris, some buried in
craters over 25-feet deep.
As was initially reported by Aero-News in
Real Time, officials first briefed reporters that rescue crews had
reached the alleged Kishi accident site, and were confident
more than half the passengers had survived. However,
the reports were later withdrawn as television crews arrived at the
accident site, finding only wreckage and bodies.
Local villagers told Reuters the jet appeared to explode in the
air, as it struggled to fly through a thunderstorm. "We heard a
very loud noise and then all of a sudden we heard a very big bang,"
said farmer Hammed Ijalaye. "We thought it was a bomb explosion and
we were all very scared."
Officials have yet to identify a suspected cause of the
accident, although several witnesses corroborated accounts of
witnessing an explosion. The wreckage was also widely scattered
throughout the region, and appeared to have hit the ground with
enough force that it was "completely buried," according to National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye.
"This is national disaster. Not a single (person) was rescued
alive," said Police Commissioner Tunji Alapini of Ogun State.
Officers from the area where the first to reach the accident site
in Lissa, a village north of the Nigerian commercial capital
Lagos.
Several homes in Lissa
were destroyed on impact. Residents reportedly escaped with only
minor injuries, excepting emotional trauma.
Nigeria has a troubled and deadly record on aviation safety,
including a May 2002 accident involving an EAS Airlines BAC 1-11
that went down in heavily populated neighborhood in the northern
city of Kano just after takeoff. That accident claimed 154 people,
in the plane and on the ground.
The country is home to several privately-owned airlines, many of
which are regarded as unsafe by foreign travelers. Bellview,
however, had not previously experienced an accident since it began
operations in 1992, and has typically been regarded as a safe and
professional airline.