Nigeria: Plane crashes, on fire minutes after takeoff

Lagos, Nigeria: Another addition to Nigeria's poor safety records in the airport. A chartered aircraft burst into flames soon after aircraft today. It is reported that the pilot, detected he fault in the airplane when it had left the Lagos runway, but was unsuccessful in bringing it back for a crash landing.

Although the Nigerian officials confirmed that there were casualties, they refused to divulge the exact figures.

According to Associated Press reports, five survivors among the 20 passengers have been taken to the nearest hospital, but their condition is not confirmed. Rescue operations started soon after the incident at 9:20 am (0820 GMT) today morning and it went on for 2 hours at a stretch.

Yakubu Dati, the Federal Aviation Agency spokesperson said,"We have put out the fire and our priority continues to be rescuing survivors."

Dati further informed that the plane was a Brazilian-made Embraer-120.

According to commissioner of police Waheed Sanau, the plane crashed in open land when it was heading to Akure in Ondo state. It was chartered from Associated Airline. The tollgate, near which it crashed had a fuel storage station depot close by that acted as a catalyst to the incident. Dati said the plane was a Brazilian-made Embraer-120.

OneIndia News