International

Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi crashes, killing 157

Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi crashes, killing 157

March 10, 2019 | 11:55 AM
People walk past a part of the wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet to Nairobi crashed early on Sunday with 149 passengers and eight crew members aboard, the airline said, and there were no survivors, according to the state broadcaster.The flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38 am local time, before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44 am."There are no survivors onboard the flight, which carried passengers from 33 countries," said state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, quoting an unidentified source at the airline.Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometres southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said, adding that the plane was a Boeing 737-800 MAX, registration number ET-AVJ.That model number does not exist however and multiple aviation websites later identified the plane as a new 737 MAX 8, the same plane that crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189."Search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties," the airline said in a statement.
People use their mobile phones near the flight information board displaying the details of  Flight ET 302
Kenya Airport Authority (KAA) Managing Director and CEO Jonny Andersen and Kenya's Transport Minister James Macharia (L) give a press conference on Ethiopia airline's crash in Ethiopia, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya
An Ethiopian Airports Enterprise fire engine drives to the scene of the Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa
The flight had unstable vertical speed after take off, said flight tracking website Flightradar24 on its Twitter feed.At Nairobi airport, many relatives of passengers were waiting at the gate, with no information from airport authorities."We're just waiting for my mum. We're just hoping she took a different flight or was delayed. She's not picking up her phone," said Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and weeping.Robert Mutanda, 46, was waiting for his brother-in-law coming from Canada."No, we haven't seen anyone from the airline or the airport," he told Reuters at 1pm, more than three hours after the flight was lost. "Nobody has told us anything, we are just standing here hoping for the best."The Ethiopian prime ministertarget="_blank"'>Its last major crash was in January 2010, when a flight from Beirut went down shortly after take-off.
March 10, 2019 | 11:55 AM