An Ethiopian Airlines plane has gone down with 149 passengers and 8 crew onboard, believed to have crashed six minutes after take off.
The Airlines Group CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam who visited the scene shortly after, confirmed that there are no survivors.
The Ethiopian prime minister’s official Twitter account has expressed condolences to families of those lost.
The PM’s office wrote on Twitter: “The office of the PM, on behalf of government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s 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 Airlines confirmed that its flight ET 302/10 March in schedule service from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was involved in an accident around Bishoftu (Debre Zeit).
The aircraft B-737-800MAX with registration number ET- AVJ took off at 08:38 am local time from Addis Ababa, Bole International Airport and lost contact at 08:44am.
“At this time search and rescue operations are in progress and we have not confirmed information about survivors or any possible causalities.
Ethiopian Airlines staff will be sent to the accident scene and will do everything possible to assist the emergency services”.
“It is believed that there were 149 passengers and 8 crew onboard the flight but we are currently confirming the details of the passenger manifest for the flight”.
Ethiopian Airlines is establishing a passenger information center and telephone number will be available shortly for family or friends of those who may have been on flight ET 302/10 March.
