Thursday 3 October 2013

BREAKING NEWS: Plane crashes at Lagos Airport

UPDATE: A seasoned journalist, Ms.
Moji Danisa wrote on her blog: the ill-
fated Akure bound aircraft which
crashed in Lagos this morning was
carrying late Gov Agagu’s corpse to
Akure. My source who was one of the
dignataries waiting to receive the
corpse at the Akure airport also reveals
that Agagu’s only son, his wife, Chief
Olu Falaye’s first son, Deji Falaye, are
among the casualties.”
Dr. Olusegun Agagu, a former gvernor
of Ondo State, died on September 13
and is scheduled to be buried this
weekend.
About 20 passengers are believed to
have been in the Embraer aircraft
reportedly owned and operated by
Associated Airlines, which crashed
around Concord Road shortly after
taking off from the local wing of the
Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja.
Mr. Nasir Ramon Olanrewaju, a senior
communications manager with the
United Bank for Africa (UBA), witnessed
the sad incident. He wrote about an
hour ago on his Facebook wall:
“Just witnessed a plane crashed at the
airport. I was at a private hangar
waiting for la flight to Ghana. The
plane, an Embraer, I was told, was
taking off, and plunged to a building,
close to Tank Farm at the airport, close
to toll gate. SAD! Not again!!”
Emergency services have moved to the
site of the crash but Nigeria’s aviation
authorities are yet to react to the
accident.
OUR EARLIER REPORT:
Reports reaching us indicate that a
plane crash has occurred at the Lagos
airport. A plane, belonging to
Associated Airlines, Thursday morning,
crashed . A witness said the crash
occurred at the local wing of the airport
close to the section were JET-A1, plane
fuel, is stored. Fire service officials were
seen evacuating the occupants of the
plane. The spokesman of the Nigeria
aviation agencies, Yakubu Datti, asked
for more time to get details of
the incident. Twenty people were said
to be on board. NEMA has confirmed
two people were killed in the crash.-
Details later.