An Ethiopian Airlines jet Boeing 737 has crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all on board.
The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were on flight ET302 from Ethiopia’s capital.
The Boeing 737 crashed Sunday morning en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi according to Ethiopia’s prime minister who offered condolences to passengers’ families.
“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.
“It is believed that there were 149 passengers and eight crew on board the flight but we are currently confirming the details of the passenger manifest for the flight.”
People walk past a part of the wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines FlightThe airline said “search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties.”The plane took off at 8:38 a.m. (0638 GMT) from Bole International Airport and “lost contact” six minutes later near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa by road.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the same type of plane as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed last October, 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
The last major accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was a Boeing 737-800 that exploded after taking off from Lebanon in 2010, killing 83 passengers and seven crew.
