Nigerian crash toll rises, airline licence is pulled

AFP/Lagos

Members of a recovery team help residents affected by the Dana Air plane crash retrieve some of their belongings from the densely-populated Toyin neighbourhood of the Iju Ishaga suburb in Lagos

The death toll after a devastating plane crash in Nigeria’s largest city rose to 159 yesterday, as aviation officials suspended Dana Air’s licence saying the carrier will not fly until a probe is completed. Excavators used a crane to tear down the ruins of a two-story residential building where officials feared more bodies could be buried. All 153 people on board the Dana Air MD83 died when it crashed in a northern Lagos neighbourhood on Sunday afternoon, but it is not yet clear how many people were killed on the ground. “We have six victims from the building. Made up of four residents and two visitors,” said Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, who heads the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency. Chineyere Peace Eweh, 37, said she was at church when she received a call that her home was on fire. “When I came I saw my flat burning. This is the only thing I have left,” the mother of three explained, pointing to her clothes. “And my Bible.” She said a member of her church congregation has arranged a place for her to stay temporarily and Lagos state government has begun registering those whose homes were destroyed, promising to pay for permanent resettlement. Follow the crash in Lagos, one of the world’s largest cities with an estimated population of 15mn people, all Dana Air flights have been grounded, officials said yesterday. “We have to look at their entire practice. ... They won’t fly again until their re-certification is carried out,” said Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Sam Adurogboye. The aviation ministry confirmed the move that was made on Monday, but a Dana Air spokesman said he was not aware of the decision. A statement from the National Emergency Management Agency said 150 bodies had been recovered so far, but excavation work at the residential building was proceeding cautiously amid fears the structure could collapse. Earlier yesterday, other building residents were allowed onto the site to salvage property, including one who spoke of a narrow escape for himself and two others. “Two of us were in the living room about to watch the Nigeria-Namibia match when we heard a loud bang and parts of the walls started falling,” said Colins Onyegesi, 24-year-old geology graduate, as he hauled away a refrigerator with his brother. The victims include a number of foreigners, including six Chinese, an Indian, a French citizen and an unclear number of Americans. The pilot was an American and the co-pilot was Indian, the country’s civil aviation chief has said. The plane, travelling from the capital Abuja to Lagos, had declared a “Mayday” and reported both of its engines having failed before it went down, according to the civil aviation chief Harold Demuren. The plane destroyed a duplex house, a church and warehouse used to store textbooks, which were scattered around the crash site among the heaps of rubble being scooped up and carried away by large-haul trucks. Small piles of burned luggage and other personal affects had been collected on the edge of the crash site, including one bag which said “US Consulate-General.” President Goodluck Jonathan visited the crash scene on Monday and pledged to improve the country’s patchy air safety record as questions swirled over what caused the accident of the 22-year-old plane. But investigators said they are not concerned with the age of the plane, with the probe focusing more how well it was maintained. “When it comes to airplanes, age doesn’t really count,” Clem Onyeyiri of Accident Investigations Bureau said yesterday. Local media reported that the crash was Nigeria’s worst since 1992, when a military C-130 went down after takeoff in Lagos, killing around 200 people on board. There have been a number of other crashes with more than 100 victims over the past decade in Nigeria but the most recent was in 2005. Dana, which began operating in 2008, issued a statement specifying that the plane was carrying 146 passengers and seven crew. It said the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority was leading the investigation and would be assisted by the US National Transportation Safety Board. Both of the plane’s cockpit recorders have been recovered, officials said.