737 crashes in Nigeria

[epic!]

A Nigerian airliner carrying 104 people crashed Sunday near the Abuja airport shortly after takeoff and burst into flames, airport and government officials told CNN. A hospital official told Nigerian television channel NTA that his facility was treating seven survivors.
The Boeing 737, operated by Nigerian airline ADC, was still on fire at the edge of the runway hours after it crashed around noon (6 a.m. ET). (Map)
Debris from the shattered plane, body parts and personal belongings of passengers were strewn over an area the size of a soccer field where the plane went down in a wooded area, according to The Associated Press.
Rescue workers pulled burned remains from the smoldering fuselage, and about 50 bodies were gathered in a corner of the site, while the tail of the plane hung from a tree, The AP reported. (Watch the scene at hospital near crash site -- :55)
The aircraft was heading to the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto and may have been carrying the Muslim state's highest ranking official, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammadu Maccido, according to a senior source with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's office.
Flight 53 was scheduled to take off from the Nigerian capital Abuja at 10:35 a.m. and land in Sokoto an hour later, according to ADC's Web site.
Nigeria has a poor air safety record, with at least 11 crashes since 1995 that have killed more than 500 people.
The last crash involving ADC happened in November 1996 and killed all 146 people aboard the Boeing 727. That flight went down in Imota, Nigeria, after the pilot lost control of the plane while trying to avoid a head-on collision with another aircraft.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/10/29/nigeria.crash/index.html

 

[Amish RakeFight]

You beat me to it. I was just about to post this crash, just wasn't exaclty sure where to post it.

Do the FI members feel that there should be a separate forum for crashes and accidents, rather than randomly lumping them into some general category?

This way one could search for threads discussing such, as well as having a more focused home for all of these unfortunate events.

MODS??

 

[C601]

In 2002 I put a deal together to lease ADC airlines a 737-200, its going to be a long week

 

[Publishers]

Basically we cannot use any known basis of fact when we deal with Nigeria and aviation.

 

[Squanto]

Doesn't Surprise me

I was behind the Sosoliso DC-9 (Flight 1145) that crashed on 10 December. We both took off out of Abuja. He was going to Port Harcourt and we were going to Lagos in a new CL-604. There was a massive Thunderstorm that was over Port Harcourt. I looked at the guy in the right seat and said, "Dam% I hope that guy is not doing what I think he is doing". He went right into the T-Storm. We landed and our mechanic said that a DC-9 had crashed in Port Harcourt. The real story (that never saw the light of day outside Nigeria) was that the fire trucks that came to put out the fire had forgotten to put water in their tanks, ((welcome to West Africa my friend))
Most of the the passengers were children coming home on their Christmas break.
The problem with the local pilots there is that they have a big macho culture. You would be considered a wimp if you let a little storm (their opinion) with tops to FL600 stop you from landing. I've seen it too many times. I can still see the kids walking across the ramp in their private school outfits to board the plane. Sad deal.

 

[Publishers]

I delivered two B737's down there along with the crews and some parts to get started. We landed at dusk and then went to a dinner that celebrated the arrival. That got over about Midnight and the owner said he could not wait for the first flight. The crew asked when they were shooting for to begin. He said tomorrow morning.
For most of the flight attendants, this would be there first time on an aircraft. The flight crew (most ex US air carrier guys) had been in country less than six hours and we were expected to fly passengers in the morning. Both aircraft needed serviced after the trip, including one which would not pressurize correctly. We had no documents showing anything, no clue where anything was, and he would decide in the morning what the destination was but he thought Lagos. Thus began an exciting three weeks.