IBORI'S CRASHED PLANE NOT FOUND

The regulatory Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Monday denied the widely-reported claims by government officials that the wreckage of the Beech craft 1900D aircraft, which went missing Saturday, has been found.

Nigeria's Minister of State for Aviation, Felix Kyate, Sunday confirmed a report that the wreckage was found in a village in South-east Cross River and that the three crew members on board, when the plane went missing, had been confirmed dead.

The plane, owned by the charter company Wings Aviation, left the commercial city of Lagos for the Bebi Airstrip near the Obudu tourist resort in Cross River Saturday morning, but lost contact with the control towers of the nearby Port Harcourt international airport shortly after.

NCAA said the search for the missing plane continued.

 The Minister refused to pick calls to ascertain who exactly is lying in the matter.

The claims and counter claims were a sharp reminder of the situation in 2005, when several passengers aboard a commercial jetliner operated by the local Bellview airline were said to have survived a crash involving the plane.

As it turned out, all the 117 passengers aboard the aircraft died in the crash at a site near Lagos