Nigeria Finds Wreckage of Missing Jet

Rescue workers searching the swamps outside Lagos found the submerged wreckage of a Nigerian jetliner on Friday, 24 hours after it disappeared on a domestic flight. All 141 people on board were believed dead.

“From the information I have . . . the plane just plunged into the lagoon,” Aviation Minister Ita Udoh Umeh told reporters.

A helicopter search located the Boeing 727 in a swamp at the village of Imota, about 40 miles southeast of Lagos--the intended destination of the flight Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria quoted unidentified sources as saying the pilot advised the Lagos airport to prepare for an emergency landing before the plane lost contact with the control tower Thursday evening.

The cause of the crash was unknown. Umeh said attempts would be made to lift the wreckage from the muddy water.

The jet belonging to the domestic airline Aviation Development Corp. was carrying 132 passengers and nine crew members to Lagos from the southern city of Port Harcourt, about an hour away. Port Harcourt is in the heart of Nigeria’s oil-producing region, and foreign oil industry workers frequently travel the route.

At least six Britons were on board, and the Italian and Israeli embassies said the flight carried at least one of each of their nationals.

Reporters reached the crash site before the rescue team, which arrived accompanied by British officials.

Villagers in Ebute-Egun, near the crash site, said they saw a huge ball of flame in the sky about the time the plane lost contact with Lagos airport.