Investigators found one of two black boxes from an airliner that crashed, killing 96 people in the third mass-casualty jet crash to hit Nigeria in less than a year, officials said yesterday.
The Boeing 737 -- owned by the private Nigerian airline, Aviation Development Co (ADC) -- was carrying 100 passengers and five crew when it went down just moments after taking off from Nigeria's capital on Sunday. Releasing the flight manifest, the airline said 96 people died and nine were hospitalized in Abuja.
There was no word on what caused the disaster, but the plane reportedly crashed in stormy weather.
PHOTO: EPA
Rowland Iyayi, head of the National Air Space Management Agency, said a Virgin Airlines flight that had been on the runway at about the same time as the ADC flight did not take off because of strong winds. Iyayi did not say, however, that bad weather had caused the crash, and stressed investigations were ongoing.
Asgus Ozoka, who heads Nigeria's Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau, said one of the plane's so-called black boxes was recovered late on Sunday and handed over to police officials involved in the investigation. It was not immediately known whether it was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder.
Among those confirmed dead was Nigeria's top Muslim leader, Muhammadu Maccido. Maccido was sultan of the northern state of Sokoto and headed the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, which announces when Muslim fasts should begin and end, and decides issues of policy for Nigeria's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims.
Maccido's body was immediately flown to Sokoto, where thousands of people were gathered at the airport. Maccido was buried late on Sunday in accordance with Islamic custom. The Sokoto state government declared six days of mourning.
The plane crashed one minute after taking off from Abuja airport, said Sam Adurogboye, an Aviation Ministry spokesman. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered an immediate investigation, his spokeswoman Remi Oyo said in a statement.
The plane went down in a tree-filled field inside the sprawling airport compound about 3km from the runway. Smoke rose from the aircraft's mangled and smoldering fuselage. Its tail, hanging from a tree, was one of the few recognizable parts.
The plane was bound for the northwest city of Sokoto, about 800km northwest of Abuja, state radio said, adding that it had gone down during a storm. Witnesses said there was a rainstorm around the time the aircraft took off, but rains later subsided.
Mustapha Shehu, spokesman for the Sokoto state government, had said earlier that the sultan's son, Muhammed Maccido, a senator, was also aboard the flight, along with Abdulrahman Shehu Shagari, son of former Nigerian president Shehu Shagari, who was in office between 1979 and 1983. Their fates were not immediately clear.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS