"The ADC plane took off this morning from Lagos to Sokoto en route to Abuja with around 110 passengers and crew. After dropping some passengers in Abuja, it then took off for Sokoto (north). Some moments after taking off, it lost control and crashed," one of the sources told AFP.

A sppokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the incident involving an aircraft of the privately owned Nigerian airline ADC, but he declined to give details.

"There was a crash this morning involving an ADC passenger plane. The plane crashed and burst into flames at the outskirts of Abuja. No information yet on casualties," Ibrahim Farinloye told AFP.

Sunday's crash was the latest to hit Nigeria's aviation industry in recent months.

Last month, 14 military officers, including 10 generals, were killed when their small airforce plane crashed into the hills in central Benue State.