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LAGOS, Nigeria – Rescue officials in Nigeria said Wednesday they have ended theirsearch for bodies in the site where an airliner crashed into adensely populated area, killing all 153 people aboard the plane anda still-unknown number of people on the ground. Workers cleared away the remaining pieces of the wreckage of theMD-83 aircraft Wednesday from Iju-Ishaga, the Lagos neighborhoodabout nine kilometers (five miles) from Lagos' Murtala MuhammedInternational Airport where the Dana Air flight went down onSunday. Emergency workers there have recovered 153 complete corpsesas well as fragmented remains, said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman forNigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. It is unclear ifthe fragmented remains represent less than a dozen victims, ordozens. Officials now plan to survey the neighborhood to find who remainsmissing after the plane smashed into two apartment buildings, aprinting business and a woodshop, Shuaib said. Authorities havediscussed using DNA to identify the dead. Samples would have to besent abroad for testing. The cause of the crash on a sunny, clear Sunday afternoon remainsunclear. The crew radioed the tower that they had engine troubleshortly before the plane went down. Authorities already havecollected the flight voice and data recorders and plan to send themabroad for analysis. Popular anger has risen in the country against the airline sincethe crash. On Tuesday, the Nigerian government indefinitelysuspended Dana Air's license to fly in Nigeria, Africa's mostpopulation nation, as a safety precaution, said aviation ministryspokesman Joe Obi. Officials with Dana Air could not be immediately reached forcomment. A statement posted to the company's website described theairline as "professionally managed," saying the flight's captainhad logged 18,500 flight hours, with 7,100 hours on an MD-83. Dana Air said the plane that crashed had its last safety inspectionon May 30 and was certified to fly by Nigerian regulators. However,oversight remains lax. Nigeria's government is hobbled bymismanagement and corruption. At least seven American citizens are among those killed in thecrash, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. Some, he said,were dual U.S.-Nigerian citizens, but he could not provide moredetails. A woman from West Hartford, Connecticut, her husband and four youngchildren died on the flight. Their neighbors identified them asMaimuna Anyene, her Nigerian husband Onyeke, and their children, a5 month old, 1-year-old twins and a 3 year old. Americans Josephine Onita and Jennifer Onita of Missouri City,Texas also were killed in the crash, their sister said. She saidher sisters were heading to Lagos for a wedding. Britain's foreign ministry said Wednesday that a woman with dualNigerian and British citizenship was believed to be among the deadand confirmed that members of her family in the U.K. were travelingto Lagos. The woman is believed to have been living in Britain, butno other details about her identity have been confirmed, officialssaid. The Press Trust of India reported diplomatic officials therebelieve Indian national Rijo K. Eldhose and co-pilot Mahendra SinghRathore, an American of Indian origin, were killed in the crash. Others killed in the crash included at least four Chinese citizens,two Lebanese nationals, a French citizen and a Canadian, officialshave said. The crash is the worst to hit the country since September 1992,when a military transport plane crashed shortly after taking offfrom Lagos, killing 163 people. ___ Jon Gambrell can be reached at /jongambrellap . The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Genius E Cigarette Manufacturer , China LCD Electronic Cigarette, and more. For more , please visit Ego E-cigarettes today!
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