Nigerian air disasters over the last two decades

LAGOS: A timeline of the deadliest plane crashes in Nigeria over the past two decades:

- June 3, 2012: All 153 people aboard an MD83 passenger plane are killed when the aircraft comes down on a residential area of Lagos while coming in for a landing on a domestic flight. A number of casualties are also feared on the ground.

- October 29, 2006: 96 people die when a Boeing 737 on a domestic flight from Abuja to Sokoto comes down near the federal capital shortly after

take-off. The dead include Nigeria's top Islamic figure, Muhammadu Maccido, the Sultan of Sokoto. Nine people survive the crash.

- December 10, 2005: 107 people, including 71 children from the same school, die when a DC-9 jet operated by Sosoliso Airlines veers off the    runway on landing in the southeastern city of Port Harcourt on a flight from Abuja.

- October 22, 2005: All 117 people aboard a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 on a flight from Lagos to Abuja die when the craft comes down in a swamp shortly after takeoff, during an electrical storm.

- May 4, 2002: 74 occupants of an ageing Nigerian BAC1-11 plane, and at least as many people on the ground, die when the craft crashes on a slum when coming in to land at the northern city of Kano.

- November 7, 1996: 143 people are killed in the crash of a Boeing 727 owned by the domestic airline ADC, which plunges into a lagoon not far from Lagos.

- September 26, 1992: Around 200 people die when a Nigerian C-130 military transport plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Lagos. Many of the dead are senior officers.