Passenger Plane Crashes into Building in Lagos, Nigeria
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EMMANUEL AREWA/AFP/GettyImages(LAGOS, Nigeria) — A passenger plane crashed into a building in a densely populated neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, likely killing all 153 people on board.
The Boeing MD-83 of Dana Air came down near Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Sunday. Pilots had radioed to air traffic control reporting engine trouble, a military official said.
Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency said that they are unsure of the number of people that were injured or killed. It is feared that all 153 people on board the aircraft died.
“The fear is that since it happened in a residential area, there may have been many people killed,” said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency.
The Dana Air plane was reportedly flying from Abuja, the nation’s capital, to Lagos when the accident occurred. The head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said he doubted there would be any survivors in the crash.
Thousands of people were reportedly drawn to the crash, many to help any survivors out of the smoke and burning debris.
At the time the aircraft went down, the weather was overcast but there were no storms. Authorities are investigating.
The crash was the worst in Nigeria in over two decades.
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