Details are emerging as search and rescue crews work to recover bodies from a plane wreckage on Sunday in Nigeria that killed all 153 passengers on board and at least 10 people on the ground. The pilot of the Dana Air plane, which crashed into a densely populated neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, radioed that the plane was having trouble just minutes earlier, according to an airline official who spoke with CNN on Monday.
The death toll is expected to rise as crews search the rubble of a two-story residential building that the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 plane struck. Oscar Wason, Dana Air’s director of operations, said the pilot declared an emergency as the plane was on final approach to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, and witnesses said it appeared the plane was having engine trouble. The flight was 11 miles from the runway, Wason said. Crews had recovered more than 80 bodies on Monday morning, including 10 people they believe were residents of the building. Families of the dead gathered at the airport late on Sunday and were told there were no survivors, according to Wason. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered an immediate investigation into the crash, while declaring a three-day period of national mourning for the victims.
