Nigeria plane crash, 15 killed

At least fifteen people have been killed after a small passenger plane with 27 people on board crashed shortly after take-off in Nigeria's most populous city Lagos.

The Associated Airlines plane was headed for Akure, a southwestern town about 225km away, with seven crew and 20 passengers, Aviation Ministry spokesman Joe Obi said on Thursday. He did not have details of the type of aircraft.

"The plane couldn't lift properly so it just came down," Obi said. "Some persons are being rushed to hospital. A few dead bodies have been recovered, but there are survivors."

At least four survivors have been found.



A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, Manzo Ezekiel, told AFP that the plane crashed in an area within the airport complex where fuel is stored.

Several local radio stations and Channels TV reported that the plane was carrying the body of former governor of Ondo state Olusegun Agagu to his funeral.





"There's a lot of smoke coming from the runway, but we can't get access to it. There are fire-fighters rushing to the scene," Rasaki Rhakod, who runs a car service around the airport, told Reuters by telephone shortly after the accident.

Air crashes are relatively common in Nigeria, which despite having Africa's second-biggest economy, has a poor safety record. In June last year, 163 people died when a Dana Air plane crashed into a Lagos apartment block in the country's worst airline disaster in two decades.