Plane crash in Nigeria

[ErezS]

I just heard the bad news about a plane with 150 passengers crashed in Lagos Nigeria.

http://www.rt.com/news/passenger-plane-crash-lagos-881/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/06/03/nigeria-plane-crash.html

[Evan]

MD-83 ~ Dana Air, not in the JP database ~ hit a powerline, but why...?

EDIT: Found it. 5N-RAM, formerly Alaska Airlines N944AS, manufactured 1990, delivered to Dana Air 2009.

[FLL550]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18316130



The Dana Air plane struck a two-storey building and burst into flames, witnesses were quoted as saying.
The head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said he doubted anyone could have survived the crash. Thousands of onlookers were drawn to the crash site.
Rescue services pulled at least one body from the rubble and were searching for survivors, AP news agency said.
The plane crashed in the densely populated Iju neighbourhood, just north of the airport, Lagos State police spokesman Joseph Jaiyeoba told AFP.
Smoke billows The commercial DC-10 plane was flying from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to Lagos when the crash took place.

Black smoke billowed at the crash scene
There were chaotic scenes as onlookers and emergency services rushed to the crash site.
At the crash site, reporters saw plane wreckage scattered around and the body of the plane lodged into an apartment building.
Several charred corpses could be seen in the rubble, reported AP.
The plane did not to appear to have nose-dived into the building but to have landed on its belly, careering through a furniture shop and then into residential buildings, it said.
Firefighters tried to put out the smouldering flames of the jet engine as black smoke billowed.
An investigation is under way, but in difficult conditions as darkness falls, says the BBC's East Africa correspondent Will Ross.
The weather at the time of the crash was overcast - but there were none of the storms that regularly strike the city.
On 11 May a similar Dana Air plane - possibly the same one - developed a technical problem and was forced to make an emergency landing in Lagos, our correspondent adds.
Nigeria, like many African countries, has a poor air safety record, though some efforts have been made to improve it since a spate of airline disasters in 2005.

[ErwinS]

In Africa this is, very sadly, the reality.

Nigeria has a very poor safety record and corruption is something that is ever present there.
People's lives are of little value there.


RIP.....

[Evan]

If the initial death toll is right, this will be the worst aviation disaster in two years. Hopefully no one on the ground was killed.

[IberiaMD-87]

Very sad...

I fear that there will be more victims due to the destruction on the ground.

Regards

[AVION1]

sad accident, specially when it involves a recent manufactured airplane. 1990 is not an old airplane.

[IberiaMD-87]

The MD-83 was maybe not the youngest aircraft but I agree with you totally: 1990 is not old.

It is sad because (far away from Germany) I watched at Dana Air´s developments and it seemed that this Nigerian airline was a little bit different in a positive way and the airline very often claimed to maintain a high standard of safety and training. The airline concentrated on domestic services and expanded in a rather slow pace. Ironically Dana Air was/is in the process to take one additional MD-83-aircraft. It is very difficult to look behind the scenes in Nigerian aviation but the first look was a positive one. On the other hand it is sad to see that Dana Air is not able or not willing to offer information on their website regarding the crash of one of their aircraft.

I tend to say that Dana Air could now encounter problems because the regulators could act dramatically as a reaction towards "more safety". The public reaction could result in a slump of bookings and as far as I know Nigerian carriers have difficult times to do business within Nigeria regardless of accidents. So the "advantage" of being an airline without a crash is no longer a marketing-tool.

Just my two cents.

Regards

[orangehuggy]

So there are rumors that both engines quit, if that's the case its birds or fuel I guess, although the fire indicates there was enough jet a

[Fear_of_Flying]

So there are rumors that both engines quit, if that's the case its birds or fuel I guess, although the fire indicates there was enough jet a

Either that, or the rumors are wrong, since taking off on an empty tank or experiencing a double bird strike would both be extremely improbable. Now had you said there are rumors of incorrect power settings on takeoff, that might have been more believable, and would have had a similar effect.

[orangehuggy]

He was on approach not departure, an airline crash is in itself improbable.

[Fear_of_Flying]

He was on approach not departure, an airline crash is in itself improbable.

Thanks, it was on approach, I misread something earlier. Here's the report of engine trouble:

"The flight's pilots radioed to the Lagos control tower just before the crash, saying the plane had engine trouble, a military official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to journalists."

from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/worl...8efa705f8.html

[Spectator]

Judging by the photo's of locals rummaging around in the debris, and reports of looting, I'm glad I'm not on the forensic investigation team for this crash.

[Evan]

Judging by the photo's of locals rummaging around in the debris, and reports of looting, I'm glad I'm not on the forensic investigation team for this crash.

They might have to gather their evidence on eBay. It's frightening to see how dense the crowd is, all breathing toxic smoke and walking through the wreckage barefoot. I guess this is what happens when you crash into a city of 8 million mostly uneducated and impoverished people.

The pilot is reported to be an American.

[transitfan]

RIP to all involved.

I flew on that plane, when it was with AS. 4/28/97, SFO-LAX. Even took a pic of it at SFO before boarding. AFAIK, this is the only plane that I know of that I've flown on that later crashed, but I didn't start recording reg #s until fairly recently, so there conceivably be others.