A Nigerian passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff from the capital Abuja on Sunday, killing about 100 people including the leader of the nation's 70 million Muslims. An ADC Airlines official said 105 people were on board the Boeing 737 flight to the northern city of Sokoto when it ploughed into a corn field about 2 km (1 mile) from the runway.
No more than five people survived the crash, Nigeria's third major aviation disaster in just over a year.
A Reuters correspondent saw burned bodies, some missing limbs or heads, were being loaded onto trucks from the smouldering remains of the fuselage. Only the plane's tail, an engine and part of a wing were still recognisable at the crash site, an area the size of a football field littered with body parts, smouldering fires, clothes, boxes and bags.
Ibrahim Muhammadu, the leader of the Muslim community, about half of Africa's most populous nation, was among the dead. "The plane crash that happened in Abuja led to the death of our beloved Sultan ... among about 100 people," the governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa, told reporters.
Bafarawa declared six days of mourning for Maccido who as Sultan of Sokoto was also the top traditional ruler of northern Nigeria, helped to curb religious bloodshed in the central state of Plateau in 2004.
Five possible survivors were rushed to a hospital in Abuja. Two were in critical condition, an ambulance driver said.
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