Jetliner With 104 on Board Crashes in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria (CNN) -- A Nigerian airliner carrying 104 people crashed Sunday near the Abuja airport shortly after takeoff and burst into flames, airport and government officials told CNN. A hospital official told Nigerian television channel NTA that his facility is treating seven survivors. The Boeing 737, operated by Nigerian airline ADC, was still on fire at the edge of the runway hours after it crashed around noon (6 a.m. ET). Debris from the shattered plane, body parts and personal belongings of passengers were strewn over an area the size of a soccer field where the plane went down in a wooded area, according to The Associated Press. Rescue workers pulled burned corpses from the smoldering fuselage, and about 50 bodies were gathered in a corner of the site, while the tail of the plane hung from a tree, The AP reported. (Watch the scene at hospital near crash site -- 55) The aircraft was heading to the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto and may have been carrying the Muslim state's highest ranking official, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammadu Maccido, according to a senior source with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's office.