A plane with 20 people on board suffered engine
failure Thursday shortly after takeoff in Lagos, crash-landing near an
airport fuel depot and killing at least eight people, officials told
Agence France Presse.
The Associated Airlines charter flight took off at
roughly 9:30 am (0830 GMT) from the domestic terminal at Lagos' Murtala
Mohammed International Airport.
"It was going to Akure (in the southwest). The engine
failed on takeoff and it crash-landed and burst into flames," said Supo
Atobatele, spokesman for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.
Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA) told AFP that "eight bodies" had been recovered so far,
with another person being treated for serious injuries.
"The rescue operation is still on," he said, with NEMA
staff searching the wreckage of the charter flight for potential
survivors.
Another NEMA spokesman, Manzo Ezekiel, told AFP that the
plane crashed in an area within the airport complex where fuel is
stored.
The area lies between the international and domestic terminal, he added, but it was yet unclear if the fuel caught fire.
Atobatele had earlier said the plane crashed on the runway.
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