Nigeria's government has fired about 20 top aviation managers in connection with a plane crash that killed at least 148 people earlier this month.
The official said the dismissals were "partly in connection with the Kano crash and partly for some lapses at some of Nigeria's airports. For some of them, it's because of their negligence".
Newspaper reports said the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Mr Zakari Haruna, was among those dismissed along with top officials at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
On May 4th, a BAC 1-11-500 operated by domestic airline EAS crashed into a densely populated suburb in the northern city of Kano, killing all but four people on board and scores on the ground.
The federal government has ordered the grounding of the BAC-1-11 series pending an inquiry into the crash and said it would enforce a ban announced last month on aircraft older than 22 years.
Local air companies have responded by accusing the government of passing the buck and failing to provide safe airport infrastructure.