NIGERIA: About 100 people, including the leader of Nigeria's Muslim community, died yesterday when a local airliner crashed shortly after take-off from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, authorities said.
An ADC Airlines official said 105 people were on board the scheduled flight to the northern city of Sokoto when it ploughed into a field about 2km (1.25 miles) from the runway. No more than five people had survived.
A Reuters correspondent saw burned bodies, some without limbs and headless, being loaded on to trucks amid the smouldering remains of the fuselage.
"The plane crash . . . led to the death of our beloved sultan . . . among about 100 people," the governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa, said.
Bafarawa declared six days of mourning for Sultan Ibrahim Muhammadu Maccido, who leads an estimated 70 million Muslims. Maccido, who was also the most senior traditional ruler of northern Nigeria, was instrumental in quelling religious bloodshed in the central state of Plateau in 2004.
Only the aircraft's tail, an engine and part of a wing were still recognisable at the crash site, which was littered with smouldering fires, boxes and bags.
"The smell is something you don't want to remember," said Steve Noble, a British diplomat at the site.
Five possible survivors were brought to a hospital in Abuja. Two were critically ill, an ambulance driver said.
State radio said there had been bad weather as the aircraft took off. The operator, ADC, is a popular domestic passenger airline.
The office of President Olusegun Obasanjo issued a statement calling for a full investigation.
It was the fourth significant air crash in Nigeria in just over a year. In October 2005, 119 people died when a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 airliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Lagos.
Last December a Sosoliso Airlines DC9 crashed on landing in Port Harcourt, killing 106 people, and in September, 12 Nigerian military personnel, mostly high-ranking officers, were killed in an aircraft crash in Benue state.
The crash comes a month before the country's aviation industry is due to undergo an audit. After last year's crashes, Mr Obasanjo ordered airlines and aviation authorities to improve safety standards.
Abuja airport remained open, with flights arriving and leaving as usual.