Thousands mourn Nigerian sultan killed in crash

SOKOTO, Nigeria, Oct 30 (Reuters) Thousands of tearful Nigerian Muslims gathered to mourn today at the palace of their traditional ruler, the Sultan of Sokoto, who died in a plane crash yesterday along with 95 others.

In the capital Abuja, where the Boeing 737 operated by domestic carrier ADC crashed shortly after takeoff, the government grounded the airline and said the pilot had ignored a bad weather warning from the air traffic control tower.

Sunny Arome, head of flight operations at ADC, declined to comment on the allegation. ''We would prefer to wait for the completion of the investigation before saying anything about what caused the crash,'' he told Reuters by telephone.

Nine survivors were being treated at the National Hospital and 96 bodies had been recovered from the crash site, a cornfield just a stone's throw away from the airport runway.

The northern city of Sokoto, where the flight was bound, was silent. All shops and market stalls were deserted as residents gathered at the sultan's palace or at mosques to pray and mourn.

''To me this is a terrible event because I loved the sultan.

May the Almighty give him peace,'' said Liman Muhammadu, an elderly trader.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has declared three days of national mourning for the victims, flew to Sokoto to pay his respects to Ibrahim Muhammadu Maccido.

''The late sultan worked for unity and understanding between the two major religions in the country,'' Obasanjo told a crowd of dignitaries and other mourners at the palace.

SEARCH FOR NEW SULTAN Africa's most populous country is split about evenly between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south. Maccido had helped quell several bouts of religious violence in central and northern Nigeria.

Within days, 14 kingmakers will gather to choose who will succeed him as Sultan of Sokoto and figurehead for Nigeria's estimated 70 million Muslims. The kingmakers draw up a list of three names and the governor of Sokoto state chooses the new sultan from that list.

There was widespread anger over the crash, which was the third major aviation disaster in Nigeria in just over a year.

Information Minister Frank Nweke defended the government's record, saying it had been working hard to improve safety after a plane operated by Nigerian carrier Bellview crashed near Lagos on October 22 last year, killing 117 people.

The Bellview crash was followed seven weeks later by another disaster. A plane operated by Nigerian airline Sosoliso crashed on landing in the southern city of Port Harcourt, killing 106 people, half of whom were children.

After those two tragedies Obasanjo sacked senior aviation officials and announced an overhaul of the sector. A civil aviation bill designed to strengthen the regulators is going through parliament and works are under way at some airports.

The aviation minister said today the government had suspended ADC's licence because yesterday's crash showed the airline had not internalised best practice on safety.

Police recovered the cockpit voice recorder at the crash site today and handed it over to the aviation ministry's accident investigators. The data recorder had been found yesterday.

REUTERS PDM BD0045