On 22 October 2005, the aircraft nose-dived and crashed at high speed into the earth just a few minutes after takeoff, killing all 117 people on board.

[11] Among the passengers were Cheick Oumar Diarra, a general from Mali and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deputy executive secretary;[12][13][14] Waziri Mohammed, chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation and a close aide to incumbent president Obasanjo; and Nigerian postmaster general Abubakar Musa Argungu.

[17] The cockpit crew consisted of Captain Imasuen Lambert, First Officer Eshun Ernest and Flight Engineer Steve Sani.

[3] Flight 210 was the final leg of a one-day round trip from Abuja to Abidjan with intermediate stops in Lagos and Accra.

On the fifth leg, while in Accra, the crews had a discussion on the low pressure reading of the brake accumulator system.

This was not fixed as the maintenance engineers decided that the aircraft was still within its safe operation, and thus the Boeing 737 was allowed to fly for the flight from Lagos to Abuja.

[3] The Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was then notified for search and rescue operation.

Spokesman of Oyo State, Abilola Oyoko, initially claimed that more than half of those on board had survived the crash.

This statement was later retracted as search and rescue personnel had located the wreckage in a village in Ogun State, about 50 kilometres (31 mi; 27 nmi) from Lagos.

Several factors were investigated as possible causes of the crash, including human error, weather condition and sabotage.

[3] Smoke continued to spew out from the crater for several days and investigators stated that the crash wasn't survivable.

[23][24] According to The Aviation Herald, Nigerian authorities initially reported that the aircraft had stalled at an altitude of 13,000 feet (4,000 m).

As they received satellite imagery information from Nigerian Meteorological Agency, the satellite imagery showed that both infrared and water vapor images revealed the presence of large circular shaped clouds in couplet, especially over the south western portion including Lagos and also over the coastal part of south of Nigeria.

Satellite imagery obtained from Boeing also indicated strong convective storm activity near Flight 210.

Since neither the horizon nor surface references existed due to the deteriorating visibility, the pilots had to depend on the flight instruments.

There was also unverified rumor that the crash was an assassination attempt as one of the passengers was Waziri Mohammed, a close aide to then-Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Pieces of burnt fuselage parts of the left side of the underbelly of the aircraft were found approximately 100 feet (30 m; 33 yd) away from the crater.

The conclusive evidence which would have allowed further identification of a post impact or inflight fire however had disappeared from the crash site.

A major maintenance was conducted later on 17 October but both defects were not repaired again and the aircraft was returned to operate passenger flights.

[3] On 29 September, a stiff on the aircraft's control column with engaged autopilot was recorded in the technical log.

A faulty pitch servo motor was noted as the source of the failure, but no maintenance actions were taken by the engineers.

[3] Records obtained by Associated Press revealed that Captain Lambert had gone back to work as a pilot just 9 months after being shot in the head in a robbery attempt.

[31][32] AIB noted that there was a possibility for fatigue and stress to being included as the cause of the crash as examination on the Captain's logbook revealed that he had been burdened by massive workload.

The investigation also revealed that the pilots' manual included blank pages instead of key safety information.

[3][33] Considering the possibilities that Captain Lambert had been fatigued or even incapacitated due to his prior head injury, the AIB decided to investigate the issues further.

The absence of both flight recorders also made it impossible for the investigators to examine on the possibility of pilot incapacitation.

The AIB could not reach a conclusion about the cause but made four safety recommendations in the report: Nigerian state television announced three days of national mourning in response to the deaths of the 117 passengers and crew members on board.

Nigeria's National Broadcasting Commission added that it would suspend the operation of a local TV station for "showing explicit images" of the crash scene to the public and "delivering unsubstantiated information on the disaster".