The Nigerian state radio said that 104 passengers, including the crew, died when a local Nigerian ADC 727 airliner crashed shortly after takeoff from the capital, Abuja, airport. The authority said that there had been bad weather when the airplane took off.

According to a source from the Nigerian National Security Institute, there were 105 people on board, scheduled to leave for the northern city of Sokoto. The airliner is one of the popular passenger planes in Nigeria. The source added that there is no clear evidence of whether there is a survivor or not.

A national radio station broadcast that there were no survivors found, but a private TV channel reported that there was a minimum of six survivors. A Reuter’s correspondent reported, quoting an ambulance driver, “Five possible survivors were rushed to a hospital in Abuja.”

A spokesman from Sokoto state said that the head of Nigeria's Muslims, Sultan Muhammadu Maccido, died. He was a spiritual leader in Nigerian Muslim society. Bafarawa declared six days of mourning. Sultan Maccido’s son, a current senate statesman, is included among the dead.

The civil airline ADC had a similar crash outside of Lagos in November 1996. All 143 passengers died when the ADC’s Boeing 737 airliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Lagos.

입력시간: 2006. 10.31. 09:59