Black Sunday! 153 die in Lagos plane crash “Some of them cried, ‘Help! Help!”

A passenger plane from Abuja on Sunday crashed into two houses at Iju, a suburb of Lagos metropolis, killing all 146 passengers and seven crew members on board. The houses are located on Akande Street, in the densely populated area. Although some occupants of the houses also died, the number could not be ascertained as at the time this newspaper went to bed.

The plane, a Boeing, McDonnell Douglas (MD-83), with registration number 5N-RAM and operated by Dana Airlines Limited, crashed barely five minutes to touchdown at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja.

Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Harold Demuren, said there was no survivor.

“It was a Dana (airline) flight out of the capital (Abuja) to Lagos with about 153 people on board. I don’t believe there are any survivors,” Demuren said.

Among the victims of the crash are the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma; and Ehime Aikhomu, son of the late former military Vice-President Augustus Aikhomu.

A close aide of Ajuonuma, who asked not to be named, confirmed to The PUNCH on Sunday that the NNPC spokesman was aboard the crashed plane.

He said, “I can confirm to you that Dr. Ajuonuma was on that flight. The protocol officer that followed him to the airport confirmed to us that he boarded the flight. It is really sad; it is as if I have lost my dad.”

Ajuonuma, who joined NNPC in 2003,

was one of the longest serving NNPC spokesmen.

One of the female crew members, who died in the crash, identified simply as Vivian, was billed to wed her United Kingdom-based fiancé this month.

An eyewitness told one of our correspondents at the scene that the aircraft exploded as soon as it hit one of the the buildings.

Two eyewitnesses said they heard the passengers crying for help.

One of the eyewitnesses, who did not give his name said, “They were crying, help, help, help but no one could do anything after the plane had crashed.

‘‘We all rushed to the scene after the plane crashed but we did not know what to do as the smoke was too much for us. Somebody in the crashed plane, we don’t know whether it was a passenger or the pilot, tried to escape,” he said.

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