Nigerian Jetliner Crash Kills 103

A Nigerian jetliner filled with schoolchildren going home for Christmas crashed Saturday while landing during a lightning storm, killing at least 103 people, officials said.

Sam Adurogboye, a spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, said early reports indicated that seven people survived the crash of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9. Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 took off from the capital, Abuja, and crashed at the airport in the southern city of Port Harcourt.

An airport worker said the plane broke into pieces and burst into flames. “The place where I’m standing now is scattered with corpses,” said the worker, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Frantic family members at the airport said the plane was carrying 75 students heading home from Abuja for Christmas vacation. The students attended Loyola Jesuit College, a high school, and were 12 to 16 years old.

A spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo called the disaster “a national tragedy.”

The crash was Nigeria’s second airplane accident in seven weeks. In October, a Boeing 737-200 en route to Abuja crashed after taking off from Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, killing all 117 people aboard the Bellview Airlines flight.

The cause of that crash is unknown, but U.S. experts sent to help with the investigation had ruled out terrorism, a Nigerian official said last month.

After the October crash, Obasanjo ordered stricter safety and maintenance procedures for all Nigerian aircraft.