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소아쌤

153 presumed dead as plane plunges into Lagos neighborhood

By 박한나

Published : June 4, 2012 - 09:01

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A plane carrying 153 people plunged into a residential area of Nigeria's largest city on Sunday, with all those aboard presumed dead, an inferno igniting at the scene and buildings badly damaged.

A number of people on the ground were also believed killed, an emergency official said, as around 10 burnt bodies had been removed from a building damaged in the crash.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national mourning for victims of the crash and pledged an investigation as rescuers rushed to pull out survivors from the densely populated, poor neighborhood near the airport.

The cause of the crash of the Dana Air Boeing MD83 plane was unclear, but the emergency official as well as an aviation official said the cockpit recorder had been located and handed over to police.

Officials confirmed no survivors from the plane had been found Sunday evening following the afternoon crash, but search-and-rescue missions continued.

"We presume they are dead," Tunji Oketunbi, spokesman for the country's Accident Investigations Bureau, told AFP when asked about the fate of those on board the flight.

He added that definitive casualty figures will only emerge "after the search and rescue" is completed.

A spokesman for the airline said the flight included 147 passengers and six crew. Skies were cloudy at the time of the crash, but there had been no rain.

Thick smoke rose from the area and flames could be seen shooting from a two-storey building in the afternoon. The plane crashed in a plot containing what residents described as a church, a printing shop and the two-storey residential building.

Chaos broke out as thousands of residents swarmed the area and authorities sought to restore calm, with rocks and wood planks being thrown back and forth.

Some residents tried to help by guiding firehoses through the crowds.

"I just saw the plane -- it was going down and down and down," said 23-year-old Gift Onibo.

Another resident, Tunji Dawodu, said, "I was just coming out of church around 3:30 pm when I heard a loud noise.

"I thought it was an explosion," he said. "Then there was a huge flame from the building where the plane has crashed into."

Some residents said it appeared that the plane had nose-dived into the neighborhood while others described it as swaying back and forth before crashing.

"It was waving, waving, waving," Yusuf Babatunde, 26, said at the scene.

"The pilot was struggling to control it. It crashed -- it just started burning."

Wreckage including a detached wing could be seen in the neighborhood as the inferno burned. Residents reported seeing bodies being taken out of the area as rescue workers rushed in and a helicopter landed.

"It was a Dana (airline) flight out of (the capital) Abuja to Lagos with about 153 people on board," Nigeria's head of civil aviation Harold Demuren told AFP. "I don't believe there are any survivors."

The official with the National Emergency Management Agency said the plane had crashed onto two buildings: a church and the two-storey residential structure.

At least three people had been transported for treatment with relatively minor wounds, he said, in addition to the approximately 10 burnt bodies pulled from a badly damaged building.

The president's office said in a statement that Jonathan had "directed that the Nigerian flag be flown at half-mast for the three days of national mourning.

"Meanwhile, the president has ordered the fullest possible investigation into the crash," the statement added.

Aviation Minister Stella Adaeze Oduah said in a statement that the flight had declared an emergency with the control tower at 3:43 pm local time (1443

GMT) when it was 11 nautical miles from the airport. It disappeared from the radar screen a minute later.

Lagos, the largest city in Africa's most populous nation, is home to an estimated 15 million people.

The accident came after another plane crash on Saturday night in the capital of the nearby West African nation of Ghana, which saw a cargo plane overshoot a runway and hit a passenger bus, killing at least 10 people.

The Allied Air cargo plane had departed from Lagos and was to land in Accra.

Nigeria has a spotty aviation record, though Dana had been considered to be a relatively safe and reasonably efficient domestic airline.

It began flights in 2008 and had been operating up to 27 daily flights. (AFP)

 

 

<한글 기사>

나이지리아서 여객기 추락, 153명 전원 사망 

"지상 사망자도 40명"…엔진 결함 가능성

승객과 승무원 15 3명을 태운 나이지리아 국내선 여객기가 3일(현지시간) 경제중심 도시 라고스의 인구 밀집지로 추락해 탑승자 전원이 사망했다.
또 사고기가 덮친 지상의 2층 건물에서도 불에 탄 시신 10여구가 수습되는 등 지상에서도 다수의 인명피해가 발생했다.

민간 항공사인 다나항공 소속의 보잉 MD83기는 이날 수도 아부자를 떠나 라고스 무르탈라 무하메드 국제공항에 도착할 예정이었으나 착륙을 앞두고 공항 외곽의 주거지인 이주 이샤가 지역의 2층 건물에 추락, 화염에 휩싸였다고 AP통신 등 외신들이 전했다.

익명을 요구한 군 관계자는 사고기 조종사가 추락 직전 엔진에 문제가 있다는 연락을 관제탑에 보내왔다고 말했다. 사고기는 동체로 착륙을 시도한 것으로 보인다.

사고 항공사 측은 승객 147명과 승무원 6명 등 탑승객 전원이 사망했다며 정확한 사고 원인을 조사하고 있다고 밝혔다.

현지 중국대사관 측은 탑승자 중에 최소 4명의 중국인이 포함됐음을 확인했다고 신화통신이 전했다.

AFP통신은 구조대원들이 추락 현장의 건물 잔해에서 시신 10구 가량을 수습하는 등 지상에서도 다수의 사망자가 발생했다고 전했다.

신화통신은 항공당국 관리의 말을 인용해 지상 사망자만 40명 이상이라고 밝혔다. 

목격자들은 사고 여객기가 약 5분간 요란한 소리를 내며 저고도로 비행하던 중 주거지역으로 추락했다고 말했다. 

일부는 사고기가 주거지로 급강하했다고 말했으나, 또다른 이들은 앞뒤로 흔들리다가 추락했다고 증언했다.

목격자인 유수프 바바툰데(26)는 "비행기는 계속 흔들렸다"며 "조종사가 비행기를 통제하려고 노력하는 듯 했지만 추락했고 곧 화염에 휩싸였다"고 말했다.

추락 현장에는 부러진 사고기의 날개들이 흩어져 있는 등 참혹한 모습이며 수천 명의 주민들이 몰려들어 구조관계자들이 현장 통제에 어려움을 겪고 있다.

약 20년 만에 최악의 항공사고를 겪은 나이지리아의 굿럭 조너선 대통령은 희생 자들을 위로하기 위해 3일간의 국가 애도기간을 선포하고 철저한 사고원인 규명을 약속했다.

나이지리아 최대도시로 인구 약 1천500만명이 거주하는 라고스는 이날 맑고 화창한 날씨였다.