A Nigerian passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff from the capital Abuja yesterday, killing about 100 people including the leader of the nation's 70 million Muslims.

An ADC Airlines official said 105 people were on board the Boeing 737 flight to the northern city of Sokoto when it ploughed into a corn field about 2 km from the runway.

No more than five people survived the crash, Nigeria's third major aviation disaster in just over a year.

A Reuters correspondent saw burned bodies, some missing limbs or heads, being loaded onto trucks from the smouldering remains of the fuselage.

Only the plane's tail, an engine and part of a wing were still recognisable at the crash site, an area the size of a football field littered with body parts, smouldering fires, clothes, boxes and bags.

"The smell is something you don't want to remember," said Steve Noble, a British diplomat at the scene.

Ibrahim Muhammadu, the leader of the Muslim community, about half of Africa's most populous nation, was among the dead.

"The plane crash that happened in Abuja led to the death of our beloved Sultan... among about 100 people," the governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa, told reporters.

Mr Bafarawa declared six days of mourning for Maccido.

Mr Maccido, who as Sultan of Sokoto was also the top traditional ruler of northern Nigeria, helped to curb religious bloodshed in the central state of Plateau in 2004. Five possible survivors were rushed to a hospital in Abuja. Two were in critical condition, an ambulance driver said.

The minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir el-Rufai, said the crash took place in bad weather but added that only a detailed investigation could determine the cause.

ADC is a popular domestic airline with an ageing fleet of Boeing jets.

It was the fourth significant air crash in Nigeria in just over a year.

On October 22 last year, 117 people died when a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 crashed in the countryside shortly after takeoff from the commercial capital Lagos.

Seven weeks later, a Sosoliso Airlines DC9 crashed on landing in Port Harcourt, the oil industry hub in the southeast. The crash killed 106 people, half of whom were children on their way home from boarding school for the Christmas break.

And on September 17 this year, 10 army generals and three other military personnel were killed when a small air force plane crashed in central Benue state.

The latest tragedy comes a month before the aviation industry is due to undergo an audit. After last year's crashes, President Olusegun Obasanjo had ordered airlines and aviation authorities to improve safety standards.

Air traffic in Nigeria has more than doubled to over eight million passengers a year in the last seven years, but the ageing airports and fleets have struggled to cope with the boom.

Abuja airport remained open yesterday, with flights arriving and leaving as usual even though emergency vehicles were racing across the tarmac on their way to and from the crash site.