An Ethiopian Airlines plane has crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa leaving all on-board dead.
Flight ET302 was carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members from Addis Ababa to Nairobi in Kenya. According to the airline, passengers of 33 different nationalities were on board the plane.
The plane crash occurred at about 08:44 local time. The cause behind the crash is still unclear.
Crash & rescue efforts
An eyewitness has seen “an intense fire as the aircraft hit the ground”. He further added the ‘blast and the fire after the crash was very strong. Everything has burnt down in the fire. For rescue efforts, four helicopters also reached the scene’.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also expressed deepest condolences over the loss.
Earlier the airline informed about the incident by saying that search and rescue operations started near the crash site.
In a statement, the airline said that Ethiopian Airlines sent to the crash site and “will do everything possible to assist the emergency services”.
The 737 Max-8 airplane is comparatively new to the skies, launched in 2016 and added to the Ethiopian Airlines in July 2018. Another aircraft of the same model also crashed into the sea near Indonesia.
