A passenger jet with 114 people on board disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from the commercial capital of Lagos, and Nigerian authorities say the plane had gone down.
The Boeing 737 left Murtala Muhammed airport at 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) Saturday and was en route to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja — a trip that should have taken about 50 minutes.
The pilot of Flight 210 issued a distress call just before the control tower lost sight of the plane about three minutes after takeoff, officials said.
Airport officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said they believed the plane had crashed on Saturday evening, although there was no confirmation yet.
Associated Press –
Frantic relatives of the passengers and crew gathered at the Lagos airport, seeking news.
Esosan Imasuen, waiting for hours without an update, said his father was the captain of the flight.
“Right now I’m in a state of suspended animation,” said the 22-year old student. “I’m just waiting for concrete information to know what to think.”
For the moment Nigerian authorities are trying to see if the plane landed in one of they neighboring countries.
