Indians, Chinese among 157 killed in Ethiopian plane crash, say authorities

Addis Ababa, March 10

The Ethiopian Airlines CEO and Kenya’s transport minister said Indians, Canadians, Chinese, Americans and others are among the many nationalities among the victims of Sunday morning’s deadly plane crash after takeoff from Addis Ababa.

Authorities earlier said 32 Kenyans and nine Ethiopians were killed.

Now they add 18 Canadians; eight each from China, the United States and Italy; seven each from France and Britain; six from Egypt; five from the Netherlands and four each from India and Slovakia.

The airline has said 157 people were thought to be on board.

It is not yet clear what caused the crash of new Boeing 737-8 MAX plane shortly after takeoff from Bole Airport en route to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

“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, confirming the plane was a Boeing 737-800 MAX, registration number ET-AVJ.

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.

“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.

The prime minister’s office sent condolences via Twitter to the families of those lost in the crash, without offering further details.

State-owned Ethiopian is one of the biggest carriers on the continent by fleet size. It said previously that it expected to carry 10.6 million passengers last year.

Its last major crash was in January 2010, when a flight from Beirut went down shortly after take-off. — Agencies