Dozens of people were reported to have been killed on the ground on Sunday when the ill-fated Dana Flight O999 which took off from Abuja crashed into a residential area in the outskirts of Lagos. All passengers and crew members on board died in the crash.
Though the exact number of the ground casualty is yet to be ascertained, as there were no official figures, there are strong indications that many occupants of the buildings on which the plane crashed had been killed.
Officials yesterday failed to give exact figures but witnesses said many people were believed to be buried under the rubbles. Aljazeera yesterday reported that dozens of people were believed to have died on the ground as a result of the crash.
Rescue workers including the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Red Cross said 137 bodies had been recovered from the site by evening yesterday but could not give figures of those who were killed on the ground.
NEMA spokesman, Yusha'u Shuaibu said that the body of a woman believed to be a resident of the area was also found clutching a baby. The bodies of both mother and baby were deposited at the mortuary, he said, adding that rescue operations were suspended at 7:00pm yesterday.
The spokesman said: "At 7pm, Director Search and Rescue, Air Commodore Alexander Bankole announced the suspension of search and rescue operation till tomorrow morning (today) after a body of a woman clutching a baby was recovered. They were suspected to be residents. So far 137 bodies have been removed from the crash site and taken to the mortuary."
Also, NEMA's director, search and rescue Bankole Abayomi confirmed that search and rescue teams had since found the plane's black box flight recorder. He said it has been handed to the Police.
The spokesman for the Red Cross, Mwakpa O Mwakpa told Daily Trust that the rescue mission was being handled by all federal agencies including the Red Cross. He said that the operation had gone beyond rescue to registration of families on ground.
Mwakpa said the Red Cross has initiated the family reunion link (RFL) to help locate bodies and list those found and those still missing. Nwakpa said he could not say if the bodies recovered from the site were all passengers on the flight or those killed in the buildings that were crushed.
He said as rescue operation continued the bodies of those in the building would be found.
Meanwhile Abayomi Adeolu, the brother of one of the dead victims at 41, Akande Street, Off Popoola Street, whose bodies were ripped to pieces, said he had left the house just minutes earlier to fetch water, only to return to the chilling sight of his brother's scattered body parts, alongside those of two girls from another flat.
"I saw my brother in pieces. He was dead. He was totally dead. I only went out to fetch water ... but I came back to meet him dead. I have no one now," he wailed.
Daily Trust can reveal that corpses were recovered from two story building which the aircraft crashed into. Relatives of victims were directed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to identify the corpses of victims.
Rescuers confirmed to our correspondent that the two story building where corpses were removed from would be collapsed today.
Daily Trust