An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi with 149 passengers and eight crew believed to be on board, Ethiopian Airlines said.
All 149 passengers and eight crew members believed to be on board the flight that crashed this morning are dead, the airline spokesperson has confirmed.
“The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express its deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning”.
Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, shortly after taking off at 8:38 a.m. local time, the airline said in a statement.
Ethiopia’s prime minister expressed his condolences to families of the victims.
“The office of the PM, on behalf of government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express its deepest condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning,” the PM’s office said.
After takeoff
The plane dropped from radar six minutes after departing Bole airport in Addis Ababa.
The ill-fated plane “had unstable vertical speed”, Swedish flight-tracking website flightradar24 said.
“Data from Flightradar24 ADS-B network show that vertical speed was unstable after takeoff,” the flight tracking organization tweeted.
The Boeing 737-800MAX is the same type of plane as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed last October, 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing 234 people.
“This is the second major, fatal accident involving the Boeing 737-800 MAX in less than five months,” aviation analyst Alex Macheras told DW.
The last major accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines plane was a Boeing 737-800 that exploded after taking off from Lebanon in 2010, killing 83 passengers and seven crew.
The Ethiopian state-owned airline — widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa — calls itself Africa’s largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent.
Boeing Airlpanes said on its Twitter account that it was aware of the reports about Sunday’s accident and was “closely monitoring the situation”.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras explained that the 737 MAX is the brand new updated version of the Boeing 737.
“The MAX is in service all around the world. Airlines such as the Ethiopian Airlines are using this aircraft, as it is the latest, the most fuel-efficient, short-range Boeing aircraft on the market.
“The aircraft that has been involved in the accident today is less than four months old. It was delivered to Ethiopia in mid-November, when it flew from the US, made a fuel stop in Ireland, and was delivered to Addis Ababa, which is the hub of Ethiopian Airlines,” he added.
