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« Prince jailed for smuggling coke | Main | Nigeria postpone FA Cup final »

October 27, 2005

Nigeria remembers crash victims

Nigeria has observed a one minute's silence, in memory of the victims of the crash of an airliner on Saturday.

All 117 people on board the Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 were killed shortly after take-off from Lagos.

The BBC's Jamilah Tangaza in Abuja says the observance appeared to make little impact on the streets of the capital.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman has said he does not believe reports that a previously unknown group from the Niger Delta brought down the plane.

The Coalition for Militant Action in the Niger Delta sent a statement on Tuesday to a number of newspapers taking what it called "full responsibility" for the crash and demanding the release of a separatist Niger Delta militia leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who is on trial for treason.

"It's not real. If people planned it, the statement would have been out before now," the police spokesman Haz Iwendi told Nigeria's Comet newspaper.

Lightning

It is not clear what caused the crash and investigators have been combing the crash site near the village of Lissa, in Ogun state, about 50km (30 miles) north of Lagos, looking for clues.

On Tuesday, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to plug "loopholes" in airline safety.

Security on domestic flights in Nigeria is lax, no photo ID is required and passengers can turn up to an airport and buy their ticket on the day of travel.

The pilot of Bellview Airlines flight 210 reportedly sent a distress signal just after taking off from Lagos for the capital, Abuja, in stormy weather at 2045 local time (1945 GMT) on Saturday.

John Obakpolor, a fellow of Britain's Royal Aeronautical Society and retired Nigerian Air Force officer, told Reuters news agency that the evidence pointed to a lightning strike as a possible cause.

"If it was hit by lightning - and there was lightning activity - the effect at that level is very dangerous."

Bellview said the 24-year-old plane had been given a clean bill of health by safety inspectors in February.

Kieran Daly, editor of the Air Transport Intelligence online newsletter, told the BBC that many African countries had a problem finding enough resources and qualified personnel to ensure that safety rules were being obeyed.

The Nigerian stock exchange has fallen sharply since the plane crash and the unrelated news of the death of the president's wife, Stella, over the weekend.


Posted by Publisher at October 27, 2005 02:47 PM

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