Four survivors confirmed in Lagos plane crash

FOUR persons survived  from a Lagos-Akure-bound Associated Airlines flight  which crashed in Lagos on Thursday minutes after take-off from Murtala Muhammad International Airport, aviation and emergency operations officials said.

The small aircraft was registered as 5NBJY.

An official of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said the crash occurred in the fuel dump area of the airport and caught fire.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Dr Oke Osayintolu, the General Manager of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed that 11 occupants of the aircraft died, while four were
rescued and taken to the hospital.

 AFP reports that six survivors were confirmed.The plane was said to have crashed landed shortly after it suffered an engine failure near an airport fuel depot and killing at least nine people, officials said.

The Associated Airlines charter flight took off at about 9:30 am (0830 GMT) from the domestic terminal at Lagos’s Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

“It was going to Akure (in the southwest). The engine failed on takeoff and it crash-landed and burst into flames,” said Supo Atobatele, spokesman for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.

Atobatele said 20 people were on board, but it was not immediately clear if this included crew members.

Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told AFP that the accident caused at least “nine deaths” with six confirmed survivors while one person was being treated for serious injuries.

“The rescue operation is still on,” he said, with NEMA staff searching the wreckage of the plane for possible survivors.Another NEMA spokesman, Manzo Ezekiel, told AFP that the plane crashed in an area within the airport complex where fuel is stored.

The area lies between the international and domestic terminal, he added. Reports have it that the plane was carrying the remains of ex-Ondo state governor, Olusegun Agagu, who had been set for burial this weekend.

Ondo government officials could not be immediately reached for comment.Associated Airlines was said to be a small domestic charter service.

The accident came more than a year after a plane belonging to another domestic carrier, Dana Air, crashed following an engine failure as it approached Lagos on a flight that originated in the capital Abuja.

All the 153 people on board were killed, along with six others on the ground as the plane plunged into a densely packed residential neighbourhood, destroying a three-story building.

Mr Rask Fadipe, the Director of Lagos State Fire Service, told newsmen that he received an SOS  at 9.30 a.m. in respect of the incident.

Fadipe said he deployed three fire fighting vehicles of 10,000 litres capacity each, which put out the fire.

The aircraft cut into two with the front section burnt beyond recognition and the back area almost intact, the fire official said.

He said the aircraft contained burial materials.

Meanwhile, rescue officials said the coffin had been brought out intact through the assistance of local welders, who caught through the luggage compartment of the aircraft.