Conflicting Reports Continue From Accident Site

As Nigerians began a three-day mourning period Monday for the 117 victims of this weekend's downing of Bellview Airlines Flight 210, crews at the accident scene searched for any clue they could find that could shed light on what brought the B737 down. Word came early Monday the aircraft's flight data recorders had been located, although that story was later rebuked by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

"The black box is still likely to be inside that molten lava in a valley area. We don't want to just pull it out now because there are other evidences we can tamper with," the NCAA's Babalola Borishade said in a Monday press conference.

The aircraft involved was reported by local media to be 5N-BFN (above), identified in Bellview's fleet by the name "Resilience." Officials noted the Boeing 737-200 was built in 1981, although investigators do not believe the aircraft's age or maintenance history were to blame for the accident.

President Olusegun Obasanjo directed the country's aviation ministry to conduct "a special and in-depth investigation" into the accident. The country's government is also enlisting aid from foreign aviation experts, including the ICAO, in finding what might have caused the accident, described as a "natural disaster" by one government spokesperson.

According to media reports, investigators are looking at the possibility lightning may have struck the airliner as it climbed over the village of Lissa, just after takeoff from the commercial city of Lagos. The aircraft departed Lagos in the middle of a heavy electrical storm.

Investigators have not ruled out the possibility of terrorism, either, although clues of any kind are hard to come by at the accident scene.

"The plane nosedived, the wings blew off, but the main body of the plane is buried underground," said Ibrahim Farinloye, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, to Reuters.

(ANN would like to thank Paul Morely for sharing his photo of 5N-BFN.)

FMI: www.icao.int