Nigerian school mourns plane crash victims

ABUJA - Children from a Nigerian Catholic school wept and hugged each other as they remembered 50 classmates killed in a plane crash on the weekend.

President Olusegun Obasanjo paid his condolences on a visit to the and promised to act swiftly to improve aviation safety in Nigeria which has seen two planes crashes that killed more than 100 people in the last seven weeks.

Wearing pink and green uniforms adorned with the emblem of the Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja, the children prayed for classmates killed on their way home for the Christmas break.

The Sosoliso Airlines plane crashed and burst into flames killing 106 people as it came into land at Port Harcourt airport from Abuja on Saturday. Three others pulled from the wreckage are still alive.

"This is a time for grief, with the parents, the teachers, the schoolmates and classmates," Obasanjo said after signing a condolence book. Signs pasted on the wall read "Rest in peace our dearest angels".

The Catholic archbishop of Abuja and the ministers of education and aviation also came to offer their condolences. The children and the dignitaries prayed and sang an anthem together.

"Unless we do something and do it fast, people will lose confidence in the industry," said Obasanjo.

Hours later, his office announced that the number two in the aviation ministry, Tommy Oyelade, and another senior official had been ordered to "proceed on indefinite leave immediately". Oyelade was in charge at the time of the crash, with the minister on a trip outside Nigeria.

"Following the spate of regrettable accidents in Nigeria's aviation sector, President Obasanjo has ordered a critical assessment of institutional and human capacity deficiencies in the sector as a prelude to urgent reforms," the statement said.

The Sosoliso crash came just seven weeks after a plane operated by another Nigerian company, Bellview, crashed near the commercial capital Lagos, killing all 117 people on board. The cause of that crash has not been established and investigators have not found the black box flight recorders.

Obasanjo has called an emergency meeting today with all government and private bodies involved in the aviation industry in Africa's most populous country. After the Bellview crash, he had said Nigeria would "plug loopholes" in the sector.

The Sosoliso plane crashed as it was trying to land during a storm, witnesses said. Civil aviation officials said on Saturday it missed the runway in bad weather.

Investigators have found the voice and flight data recorders of the DC9 operated by private Nigerian company Sosoliso, but have yet to reach a conclusion on the cause of the crash.

In Rivers state, where Port Harcourt is located, all flags were flying at half mast and Governor Peter Odili said today would be a work-free day in honour of the victims of the crash.

Nigeria's aviation sector has grown dramatically in the past decade, but experts say most of the commercial fleet is second-hand and more than 20 years old. Runways are frequently closed for emergency patch-ups.

- REUTERS