LAGOS, Nigeria —A commercial airliner crashed into a densely populated neighborhood in Nigeria’s largest city Sunday, killing all 153 people on board and others on the ground in the nation’s worst air disaster in nearly two decades.
The cause of the Dana Air crash remained unknown Sunday night, as firefighters and police struggled to put out the flames around the wreckage of the Boeing MD83 aircraft.
Authorities could not control the crowd of thousands gathered to see the crash site, with some crawling over the plane’s broken wings and standing on a still-smoldering landing gear.
Harold Demuren, director-general of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority, said all on board the flight were killed in the crash. Lagos state government said in a statement that 153 people were on the flight traveling from Nigeria’s central capital of Abuja to Lagos in the nation’s southwest.
Rescue officials feared many others were killed or injured on the ground, but no casualty figures were immediately available. Firefighters and locals were seen carrying the body of a man from one building, its walls still crumbling and flames shooting from its roof more than an hour after the crash.
President Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national mourning.
The aircraft appeared to have landed on its belly in the dense neighborhood that sits along the typical approach path taken by aircraft heading into Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport. The plane tore through roofs, sheared a mango tree and rammed into a woodworking studio, a printing press and at least two large apartment buildings in the neighborhood before stopping.
While local residents helped carry fire hoses to the crash site, the challenges of life in Nigeria became apparent as there wasn’t any water to put out the flames more than three hours later.
Some young men carried plastic buckets of water to the fire, trying to douse small portions. Firetrucks, from the very few that are stationed in Lagos state with a population of 17.5 million, couldn’t carry enough water. Officials commandeered water trucks from nearby construction sites, but they became stuck on the narrow, crowded roads, unable to reach the crash site.
Officials with Lagos-based Dana Air did not respond to calls for comment.
Online More photos from the crash site
Air disasters
Major airline crashes in Nigeria:
• Oct. 29, 2006: An Aviation Development Co. flight from Abuja to Sokoto crashes, killing 96 people, including the top spiritual leader for the nation’s Muslims. The plane crashed 76 seconds after going airborne.
• Dec. 10, 2005: A Sosoliso Airlines flight full of schoolchildren flying from Abuja to Port Harcourt crashes, killing 107 people. A U.S. report later says the pilot was “reportedly racing a thunderstorm” nearing the airport.
• Oct. 22, 2005: A Bellview Airlines flight crashes, killing 117 people, including a U.S. citizen, after nose-diving into the ground. An investigative report later said the plane’s captain, a 49-year-old former pilot, had been hired by Bellview after he had been working at a dairy for 14 years.
