An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on Sunday morning shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa. Some 149 passengers and eight crew members were believed to be on board the Nairobi-bound flight, an Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said. Quoting Ethiopia state broadcaster, Reuters stated that there were no survivors on the flight.
Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, shortly after taking off at 8:38 a.m. local time, the airline said.
"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 on Twitter.
The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s 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.
— Office of the Prime Minister - Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) March 10, 2019
The flight had 149 passengers and eight crew members aboard, said an Ethiopian Airlines spokesman. "We hereby confirm that our scheduled flight ET 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was involved in accident today," the airline said in a statement. "The crash occurred around Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the capital, shortly after taking off at 8:38 a.m. local time."
The cause of the crash remained unknown on Sunday morning.
Below are phone numbers for information
— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019
Airport emergency hotline
011 5 17 87 33
0115 17 47 35
For all information necessary
011 5 17 89 45
011 5 17 89 87
011 5 17 82 31
011 5 17 85 58
After take-off
The plane dropped from radar six minutes after departing from Addis Ababa, according to aviation analyst Alex Macheras, who tweeted the ill-fated jet was a brand new Boeing 737 MAX delivered to the airline just four months ago.
"This is the second major, fatal accident involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in less than five months, including October's Lion Air crash," Macheras told DW.
The Lion Air Crash which killed all 189 people on board, is Indonesia's second-worst air disaster, after the 1997 Garuda Indonesia crash near Medan, which killed 234 people.