Recovery teams searched yesterday through the vast debris field left by a Nigerian passenger plane that crashed north of Lagos killing all 117 people on board.

Investigators are working on the theory that the Boeing 737 nosedived into a marsh and much of the fuselage is now buried beneath a smoldering 20-meter crater.

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

"We are trying to remove the debris from the ground."

Investigators found the plane's flight recorder, Punch newspaper reported police as saying, which should provide a clue as to the cause of the disaster.

But the task of finding and identifying victims was made difficult by the violence of the impact.

Dismembered and burned body parts, fuselage fragments and engine parts were strewn over an area the size of a football field, but much of the plane and many bodies appeared to be missing.

"Investigators are working with the body parts. They are being recovered," Farinloye said.

A wig, clothes, foam seats and a hand were seen wedged in the sodden earth. A check for US$7,300 was one of a number of personal papers found in the wreckage.

The Boeing 737-200 on a scheduled flight from Lagos to Abuja lost contact with the control tower on Saturday night when there was a heavy electrical storm in the area.

The pilot made a distress call shortly afterward, indicating a technical problem, a presidency source said.

Ogun State Police Commissioner Tunji Alapini said the black box containing vital clues to the cause of the crash had been found.

A government statement released late on Sunday said all 111 passengers and six crew were killed and declared three days of national mourning for the dead.

Important passengers

The route the airliner was taking is heavily traveled, with dozens of flights each day between the port of Lagos one of the world's biggest cities and Abuja in the heart of Africa's most populous nation.

A US official confirmed that a US military officer was aboard the aircraft. Diplomats and airline officials said it was also believed to be carrying a top official of the Economic Community of West African States, a Nigerian presidential aide, two Britons and a German.

Distraught relatives wailed and prayed at Lagos airport as a Bellview Airlines official read out a list of passengers. The list may not be entirely accurate because tickets are often transferred between people in Nigeria, the official said.

Aviation analysts said the fact the aircraft was 24 years old may have been a factor in the crash, although they also pointed to the weather as a likely cause.

Bellview Airlines is a privately owned Nigerian airline. It recently began international flights to India and London.

In Seattle, Boeing spokesperson Liz Verdier said the company would work with the US National Transportation Safety Board if the board was asked to help with any investigation in Nigeria.

(China Daily October 25, 2005)