Contradicts Earlier Reports Of As Many As 50 Survivors

The Nigerian government has released a statement retracting earlier reports of survivors of the Saturday night accident involving a Bellview Airlines B737-200 that went down after takeoff in an electrical storm. Officials now state all 117 passengers, including one American, onboard the doomed airliner died.

"The Federal Government announces with regret the unfortunate air crash of Bellview Airlines... which resulted in the loss of life of all passengers and crew on board," the statement said.

The news came as rescuers struggled to gather remains of the victims at the accident site amid smoldering debris, some buried in craters over 25-feet deep.

As was initially reported by Aero-News in Real Time, officials first briefed reporters that rescue crews had reached the alleged Kishi accident site, and were confident more than half the passengers had survived. However, the reports were later withdrawn as television crews arrived at the accident site, finding only wreckage and bodies.

Local villagers told Reuters the jet appeared to explode in the air, as it struggled to fly through a thunderstorm. "We heard a very loud noise and then all of a sudden we heard a very big bang," said farmer Hammed Ijalaye. "We thought it was a bomb explosion and we were all very scared."

Officials have yet to identify a suspected cause of the accident, although several witnesses corroborated accounts of witnessing an explosion. The wreckage was also widely scattered throughout the region, and appeared to have hit the ground with enough force that it was "completely buried," according to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye.

"This is national disaster. Not a single (person) was rescued alive," said Police Commissioner Tunji Alapini of Ogun State. Officers from the area where the first to reach the accident site in Lissa, a village north of the Nigerian commercial capital Lagos.

Several homes in Lissa were destroyed on impact. Residents reportedly escaped with only minor injuries, excepting emotional trauma.

Nigeria has a troubled and deadly record on aviation safety, including a May 2002 accident involving an EAS Airlines BAC 1-11 that went down in heavily populated neighborhood in the northern city of Kano just after takeoff. That accident claimed 154 people, in the plane and on the ground.

The country is home to several privately-owned airlines, many of which are regarded as unsafe by foreign travelers. Bellview, however, had not previously experienced an accident since it began operations in 1992, and has typically been regarded as a safe and professional airline.

FMI: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellview_Airlines