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Posted on 10/22/2005 9:57:21 PM PDT by F15Eagle
LAGOS, Nigeria - A Nigerian passenger aircraft carrying 114 people went missing late on Saturday shortly after take-off from Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, local media reported.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-200 operated by Bellview Airlines, lost contact with the control tower five minutes after taking off at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, said Jide Ibinola, a spokesman for the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria. It was headed for the capital, Abuja.
Ibinola said those aboard included 108 passenger and six crew. Their nationalities were not immediately known.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
What would be the range of such aircraft?
Almost certainly a crash. Low budget airline, probably has crap for maintenance in a third world country, flying an accident prone plane.
LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- A jet with 114 people on board disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from the commercial capitol of Lagos, and Nigerian aviation authorities have confirmed the plane later crashed.
Thank You
I never was too crazy about the -100 and -200 models of the 737 especially. Prayers for the victims and their families.
There have been a lot of crashes of 737-200's lately, most of the ones in the US, except for Delta's have been retired. Dodgy 3rd world airlines pick them up, don't maintain them, they crash.
Oops. Looked up Nigerian after I saw it on MSNBC.Com
My old airline had the last -100 to fly in the US, got retired on 12-31-1999, beer cans now.
Maybe it had an overwight cargo of Yellow Cake!
Well at least since they made a radio call it's probably not like the Helios crash, meaning it wastn't oxygen related-- who knows what caused it. Maybe it was a terrorist incident-- too early to say.
12-31-1999? Once the -300 models showed up (I was a passenger on Southwest a lot to save the client's money when I traveled) I felt a little better. When I went to Connecticut in 1994, I think it was a -300 or -400 that went down near Detroit(?). Something about the left engine on fire, as I recall.
New rules about noise and stage two engines went into effect on 1-1-00, not worth upgrading the plane, as it was a bag of bolts to begin with.
That's a pretty good sketch of the story.
How far would it get in 5 minutes? I wonder what the terrain is under its flight path?
LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- A passenger jet with 114 people on board disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from the commercial capital of Lagos, and Nigerian authorities confirmed the plane had gone down.
Doesn't matter what the terrain is when you crash into it.
See post #6
The one in 1994 I mentioned was USAir 427, in Pennsyvania, not Detroit as I said. I think I came back through Detroit on that trip.
I have the NOVA tape on the Panama 737 (-100?) that had the problem with the artificial horizon indicators (electric). I guess that backup unit was OK but the pilot/co-pilots were shorting out, as I understand it, and did not correctly display attitude (perpetually).
Wouldn't that depend on the operator? Southwest flew 737-200's for almost 34 years without one accident. The one nearly fatal accident they had was with a 737-300.
Missed that, sorry.
No worries.
LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- A passenger jet with 114 people on board disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from the commercial capital of Lagos, and Nigerian authorities confirmed the plane had gone down.
The Boeing 737 left Murtala Muhammed airport at 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) Saturday and was en route to Nigeria's capital, Abuja -- a trip that should have taken about 50 minutes.
But the control tower lost sight of Flight 210 about three minutes after takeoff, authorities said.
Some high-level Nigerian officials were believed to be on board the privately-owned Belleview Airlines jet, the office of President Olusegun Obasanjo told CNN. They were headed to Abuja for a meeting.
The Nigerian airline is popular with expatriates living in the West African nation and Western diplomats feared several their citizens could have been on board, according to Reuters news agency.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said two helicopters had been scrambled to search for the plane.
The twin-engine plane had a capacity of 120 people, but there were 114 on board, 108 passengers and 6 crew.
A storm was passing through Lagos about the time the flight left, according to CNN's Jeff Koinange.
There were widespread rains and thunderstorms around the southwestern corner of Nigeria, particularly near Lagos to Ibadan, according to CNN's meteorologist Mari Ramos.
Flights leaving Lagos fly out over the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, before turning back to reach Abuja, according to Koinange, so it is likely helicopters will be searching the Atlantic coast.
The FAA won't certify new combi aircraft like that. Any future combis will be required to have a permanent barrier between the cargo compartment and passenger compartment of the main deck.
I was thinking more in terms of locatability, not so much survivability. :-)
Looks like it's largely water north and south of the city.
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If they even reached 300mph at 5 miles/minute, 5 minutes works out to about 25 miles max (not including intial climb out, which is slower). I'd be surprised if it was even 15 miles or so.
They had a plane that the original and new Frontier flew. My airline had one of their planes for about 2 years back in 86.
You might want to add the update to the title: "Update: Confirmed, plane crashed."
Plane crashes in Nigeria with 114 on board
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/plane-crashes-in-nigeria-with-114-on-board/2005/10/23/1130005992674.html
"Nigeria's Federal Airports Authority has confirmed a missing Nigerian airliner carrying 114 people has gone down after take-off from the commercial capital Lagos, CNN television reported today.
The station's reporter in Lagos said by telephone: "The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria is confirming that the flight has indeed gone down ... maybe just after take-off from Lagos."
Instead of "gone down" why don't they just say "crashed and burned"? Why beat around the bush?
The only 737's I've ever flown on were 737-200's. Southwest continued flying them around Texas till January of this year.
Could this crash just be one of those "spark-in-the-empty-middle-fuel-tank-thingees" ???.....
After all, Africa is such a tranquil "back-to-nature" kind of place (they show it on the Discovery Channel sometimes), that the idea of someone with a say shoulder-fired SAM missle trying to shoot down a plane, would almost be out of the question....
....( well there was this "movie" I saw...."Black Hawk Down"...but you know how those Hollywood folks hype stuff up....)
(...sarcasm OFF thingee goes in this spot....)
| Model | Rate | Events | No. Flights | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Aerospatiale Concorde | 12.5 | 1 | 0.08 Million | 19 |
| Airbus A300 | 1.13 | 9 | 8.0 Million | 12 |
| Airbus A310 | 1.85 | 5 | 2.7 Million | 13 |
| Airbus A319/320/321 | 0.67 | 4 | 6.0 Million | 7 |
| Boeing 727 | 0.66 | 46 | 70.0 Million | 6 |
| Boeing 737 | 0.62 | 47 | 76.0 Million | 5 |
| Boeing 747 | 1.62 | 24 | 14.8 Million | 14 |
| Boeing 757 | 0.56 | 4 | 7.2 Million | 4 |
| Boeing 767 | 0.46 | 3 | 6.5 Million | 3 |
| British Aerospace BAe 146 | 0.89 | 4 | 4.5 Million | 10 |
| Embraer 110 Bandeirante | 3.73 | 28 | 7.5 Million | 17 |
| Embraer 120 Brasilia | 0.71 | 5 | 7.0 Million | 8 |
| Fokker F-28 | 2.35 | 20 | 8.5 Million | 16 |
| Fokker F-70/F-100 | 0.67 | 3 | 4.5 Million | 7 |
| Lockheed L-1011 Tristar | 0.91 | 5 | 5.5 Million | 11 |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-9 | 0.76 | 42 | 55.5 Million | 9 |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-10 | 1.97 | 15 | 7.6 Million | 15 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-80 | 0.45 | 9 | 20 Million | 2 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11 | 5.71 | 4 | 0.7 Million | 18 |
| Saab 340 | 0.33 | 3 | 9.0 Million | 1 |
There are American expats working in Nigeria. Sometimes the host country airline is the only way to and from.
Richard Branson is starting Virgin Nigeria and flies from Lagos to London. Continental was going to fly there this year, but backed out, its a pretty corrupt place to do business, even though they would do pretty well connecting Lagos to Houston for oil companies.
There is an Angolan airline that is going to fly Houston-Luanda in the near future.
I just saw on NOVA PBS site that Saudi Arabian pilots (!) reported a greenish object streaking by their plane in the vicinity of TWA 800 seconds before the "event". I didn't remember reading that before but had not followed the story so closely because of all the controversy.
ping
wonder if that was the actual plane?
From the Guardian News of Nigeria, FWIW:
Uncertainties Over Bellview Flight
• Left Lagos 8.30pm, Not In Abuja As At 2.30am
• 108 Passengers, 6 Crew Members On Board
BY TUNJI OKETUNBI, ASST AVIATION EDITOR
Panic, anxiety and tension ruled the aviation sector last night till early hours of today over the fate of a Bellview aircraft, which reportedly departed Lagos at 8.30pm but had not been seen at its destination Abuja as at 2.30am.
The aircraft — Bellview 210— operated with a B737-200A series, the last flight of the airline for the day, according to the Manifest, had 110 passengers and six crewmembers on board — 116 persons in all. But a statement from Bellview recorded 108 passengers.
It was said to have lost contact with the air traffic control towers a few minutes after it left the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos.
A statement signed by Habib Muhammed, head of the airline’s Corporate Affairs, released at about 2.20am said: “The management of Bellview Airlines deeply regret to announce that our flight number Bellview 210, that left Lagos at 20.30 local time enroute Abuja on Saturday October 22nd, 2005 lost contact with the control tower shortly after take-off. The flight was operated with B737-200A series.
“As at this point in time we have not been able to confirm the whereabouts of the aircraft”.
The statement added: “In collaboration with the appropriate authorities all efforts are being made to locate the aircraft with her compliment of 108 passengers and its crew of six totalling 114 souls.
“The authorities are setting up information briefing centre at Murtala Muhammed International Airport press centre Lagos. We advise all enquiries to be directed to the authorities at the press centre and the following number 01-7919314. The authorities will announce additional telephone numbers in due course”.
Concluding the statement promised that “the authorities will provide the details of passenger manifest and updates”, adding, “We ask everyone to join us in prayers at this critical time”.
Other telephone numbers announced on television early this morning were: 08033119731 (Jide), and 08056024322 (Segun).
All through the night, the control tower and the airline officials struggled to establish contact with the aircraft but to no avail.
Nobody was sure what fate might have befallen the aircraft, and its passengers.
Aviation authorities early this morning, appealed for calm, warning against any speculation about fate of the aircraft and its passengers. According to officials, there are several possibilities that could be considered when such an incident occurs in aviation.
Among such is the possibility of the flight having been diverted to an airport in any of the neighbouring countries. This, officials said, could be as a result of any emergency recorded in the course of the flight. There have been such cases in the past, said an official, while disclosing that the towers had been making contacts with airports in Accra, Ghana, Cotonou in Republic of Benin, and Yaunde in Cameroun among others.
“We are still making contacts with the other neighbouring countries”, said the official, adding “but I assure you this is the most likely possibility. It is a normal thing in aviation if the pilot discovers that he could not land at its destination due to certain emergencies”.
“It is possible also that the aircraft got lost in the sky, and is still hovering around trying to find its bearing. That is why we have been frantically trying to establish contact with it”, disclosed officials at the control towers in Lagos”.
They added, “Our colleagues in Abuja are also doing same, and we have put other airports in the country as well as in neighbouring countries on the alert”.
Though noting that this was a feature of aviation operation, the officials said sometimes it could produce mixed results. They reminded of the case of an Okada airline aircraft, which got lost in the air in the eighties but was found hours later to have crashed in the desert in remote part of Sokoto State.
Another possibility, said an official, is that it could have been hijacked. “ Though very rare occurrence in this part, we have witnessed this in the past, especially in the wake of the annulment of the 1993 presidential elections when certain men in the name of Movement for the Advancement of Democracy, (MAD), hijacked an aircraft and diverted it to Niger Republic.”
He noted quickly however that “this is a very remote possibility cause indeed.”
A fourth possibility, which the officials said they fervently hoped would not come to pass, is a crash. “We pray this is not the fate of the aircraft. It will be too sad a tale for the sector”, said an official.
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article01
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