Posted by Kten Online on
The State Department says an American was aboard the Nigerian jetliner that crashed minutes after takeoff from Lagos.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - The State Department says an American was aboard the Nigerian jetliner that crashed minutes after takeoff from Lagos.
All 117 passengers and crew on the Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 are feared dead. Most are believed to be Nigerians.
The wreckage was found in an uninhabited wooded area near Lissa, a small town 30 miles north of Lagos.
Nigeria's civil aviation chief says the aircraft was found partly submerged in the ground and broken into several pieces.
There is no immediate indication of what caused the crash, but it's not thought to be terrorist-related. The civil aviation chief says the weather was not too bad, but there was lightning in the area. He says investigators are searching for the plane's flight data recorders.
The crash was Nigeria's worst air disaster since May 2002.