“First responders are at the scene. Sadly, all 7 personnel on board died in the crash,” he said.
Hadi Sirika, the minister of aviation, also tweeted that the crash “appears to be fatal,” and urged calm as an investigation by the military is carried out.
The plane was headed to Minna city, approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of Abuja.
Witnesses at the site said the crash was terrifying.
“Everybody there was screaming full of disbelief,” Olugbenga Alaade, a government employee who said he has worked at the airport for nine years and who saw the crash, told The Associated Press by phone. It’s been at least a decade since a plane has crashed at that airport, he said
Photos of the crash site show black clouds of smoke over parts of the shattered plane. Witnesses told local media they saw the plane struggling to turn around and get back to the airport before the plane exploded.
Mednick reported from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
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