Nigerian airliner with 116 people on board including some senior officials crashed shortly after taking off from Lagos en route to the capital Abuja, the government said on Sunday.

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Bellview Airlines flight 210 took off at 8:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) on Saturday night and lost contact with the control tower minutes later during a heavy electrical storm.

Authorities had not located the plane almost 12 hours later.

"The government has been able to confirm that Bellview flight 210 may have gone down, thereby confirming our worst fears," Information Minister Frank Nweke told state radio.

"The plane lost contact with the control tower but we are yet to find the exact location," he added.

Emergency services including the navy have launched a search and rescue mission.

The plane was carrying 116 people: 110 passengers and six crew, authorities said.

Initially, it was not known whether the Boeing 737-200 had crashed, been hijacked or had made an emergency landing.

But the pilot made a distress call minutes after take-off on Saturday night, indicating the plane had a technical problem, a source at the presidency told Reuters.

The flight to Abuja would not normally travel over the ocean but the plane could have diverted briefly over the sea if it was avoiding a thunderstorm, aviation officials said.

MISSING

State radio reported that several high ranking government officials were on the plane, but did not name them.

The privately owned Nigerian airline is popular with expatriates and Western diplomats feared several of their citizens could also have been on board.

Dozens of flights run each day between the port of Lagos — one of the world's biggest cities — and Abuja in the heart of Africa's most populous nation.

Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier told CNN by telephone from Seattle the company would work with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board if the board were asked to help with any investigation.

She said the 737 was the "workhorse of the world commercial jet fleet."

Bellview Airlines could not confirm the airliner had crashed 11 hours after it disappeared and concerned relatives at Lagos airport grew impatient with the lack of information.

"I am worried because nobody is talking to me," said Samuel Ojeikedion.

A group of about 10 men and women sang prayers for missing relatives in the deserted airport building.

More than 140 people died in May 2002 when a Nigerian airliner slammed into a poor suburb in the northern city of Kano, killing people on board and on the ground. The aircraft plowed into about 10 buildings shortly after take-off.