Investigators hunt for clues after plane crashes, killing 117

Nigeria began three days of official mourning on Monday as investigators started scouring a still-smouldering crater for clues after a weekend plane crash that killed 117 people. A charred wrist, a single finger and a piece of intestine lay next to unidentifiable parts of the aircraft at the crash scene near the village of Lissa. Clothes and other fragments of the wreckage hung on treetops in the bush. Bellview Airlines flight 210 crashed on Saturday night, minutes after taking off from Nigeria's biggest city Lagos, en route to the political capital, Abuja. All 111 passengers and six crew died. Relatives thronged the site on Monday, picking over the wreckage, hoping to find a piece of clothing or an identity card, all that remains of their loved ones. “To the best of my knowledge no whole body has been recovered,” said Foluso Adebayo, a senior police officer leading the team guarding the crash site, some 40 km north of Lagos. The bulk of the Boeing 737 aircraft appeared to be missing, swallowed by the ground after slamming to earth. Officials said investigators would excavate the crater, which was still emitting an acrid smoke on Monday, almost two days after the crash. “Our preliminary position is that the plane seemed to have lost control and went down,” said Fidelis Onyeriri, head of the National Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). “The weather was not too bad, but there was lightning. An airplane struck by lightning could lose total control.” State radio said pilots issued a distress call before the plane disappeared from the radar. During the first 18 hours that followed the crash there was confusion among the emergency services about the location of the aircraft, with searches being conducted in the Atlantic Ocean and in the town of Kishi, some 300 km north of Lagos, before honing in on Lissa. Aviation Minister Babalola Borishade said on Monday that Nigeria had asked the United States to send forensic experts and aviation investigators to help determine the cause of the crash. “Looking at this site it’s really devastating. For now we just believe it’s an accident,” Borishade said. Bellview is a privately-owned Nigerian company that began flights more than 10 years ago and serves a number of West African capitals as well as England and India. Saturday's crash was the first recorded by the Nigerian airline. Further darkening the national mood was the news of the death of Stella Obasanjo, the president's wife. An official government statement said she had died in a hospital in Spain, while undergoing surgery.