A Nigerian plane carrying 110 passengers and crew crashed and burst into flames in the oil city of Port Harcourt today killing 103 people, a Nigerian aviation official said.
A mother awaiting news of her child at the Port Harcourt airport said the plane was carrying 75 secondary school students from a Jesuit college in the capital Abuja.
The plane, travelling from Abuja to Port Harcourt, was operated by private Nigerian carrier Sosoliso.
Civil aviation spokesman Samuel Adurogboye said the plane was carrying 103 passengers and seven crew when it missed the runway on landing and burst into flames. He said 103 people died. Seven survived the crash. The cause of the crash was unknown but Mr Adurogboye said the aircraft "ran into bad weather".
The disaster comes seven weeks after a plane operated by another Nigerian airline, Bellview, crashed near the commercial capital Lagos killing all 117 people on board.
Sosoliso flies many domestic routes daily. It is one of only two airlines that operate on the busy Abuja to Port Harcourt line.
The aviation industry of Africa's most populous country has grown dramatically in the past decade, but it has been struck by a number of fatal air crashes.
An inquiry is under way into the Bellview crash but there is no word yet on the cause and investigators have not found the voice or flight data recorders.
Experts say most of the country's commercial fleet is over 20 years old and second hand, while runways close regularly due to poor maintenance.