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Agencies

A Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashed minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and “at least a dozen” UN staff.
Ethiopia declared a national day of mourning for Monday amid a global stream of condolences for loved ones, many of whom gathered in tears at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Tragedy for UN as 19 personnel killed in Ethiopian crash
“The House of People’s Representatives have declared March 11, 2019, a national day of mourning for citizens of all countries that have passed in this tragic accident,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said on Twitter.
Identities of the victims from 35 countries started to emerge as foreign governments and the United Nations reacted with shock.
“Deeply saddened by the news this morning of the plane crash in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all on board,” tweeted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.


Among the dead were tourists, business travellers, and “at least a dozen” UN staff, according to an agency source, including some who worked for the World Food Programme, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the International organisation for Migration, and the World Bank.

Deeply saddened by the news this morning of the plane crash in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all on board. My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims — including our own @UN staff — who perished in this tragedy.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 10, 2019

Many were headed for an annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, which opens in Nairobi Monday with some 4,700 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives.
Slovak MP Anton Hrnko was among the bereaved.
“It is with deep sorrow that I announce that my dear wife, Blanka, son Martin and daughter Michala, died in the air disaster in Addis Ababa this morning,” he wrote on Facebook.
China grounds nation’s 737 MAX 8 jets after Ethiopian Airlines’ crash
Flight ET 302 ploughed into a field 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa on what the airline’s CEO Tewolde GebreMariam labelled a “very sad and tragic day”.
An eyewitness said the plane came down in flames.
“The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion,” Tegegn Dechasa recounted at the site, littered with passenger belongings, human remains, and aeroplane parts around a massive crater at the point of impact.

“The plane was in flames in its rear side soon before the crash. The plane was swerving erratically before the crash.”
Local farmer Sisay Gemechu said he heard a loud noise as he was on his way to fetch water.
“The plane seemed to be aiming to land at a nearby level open field, but crashed before reaching there,” he said.
The Boeing 737-800MAX was brand new, delivered to state-owned Ethiopian Airways on November 15, said the carrier, Africa’s largest.
The plane is the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
India calls for pilot training simulations to replicate Lion Air crash
Ethiopian Airlines said the plane had taken off at 8:38am from Bole International Airport and “lost contact” six minutes later.
It came down near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu.
The carrier, which changed its logo on Twitter to black and white from its trademark green, yellow, and red, said “there are no survivors”.
“We can only hope that she is not on that flight,” Peter Kimani, who had come to fetch his sister at Nairobi’s JKIA, said after news of the disaster reached those waiting in the arrivals hall.

Relatives, friends, and colleagues of passengers were frantically waiting for information at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“I am waiting for my colleague, I just hope for the best,” said Hannah, a Chinese national.
Loved ones were later brought to the on-site Sheraton Hotel where they were debriefed and offered counselling. Journalists were not allowed in, but could hear sobbing from inside.
Ethiopian Airlines said Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by Canada with 18, Ethiopia nine, then Italy, China and the United States with eight each.

Accident Bulletin no. 3
Issued on March 10, 2019 at 4:59 PM pic.twitter.com/5UOxsbl24f
— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019

CCTV said the eight Chinese included one from Hong Kong, based on a list provided by China’s embassy in Kenya.
The network named the Hong Kong resident as Tsang Ching-ngai, who it said worked for a United Nations environment programme.
Two of the mainland Chinese CCTV identified worked for state-owned companies – Zhou Yuan, from China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, and Jin Yetao of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.


Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five, according to the airline. France’s government later gave a different figure of eight French victims.

African Union commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat spoke of “utter shock and immense sadness”, while Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of the IGAD East African bloc, said the region and the world were in mourning.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and his British counterpart Theresa May both described the news as “devastating”.

Canadians join people around the world in mourning the loss of so many lives today. Our hearts are breaking for the families and friends of the 18 Canadians who were killed. Please read my full statement on the tragic plane crash in Ethiopia: https://t.co/FG3wVmu5m8
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) March 10, 2019

Sympathy messages also came from the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Britain, Germany, France and the United States.
GebreMariam said the plane had flown in from Johannesburg earlier on Sunday, spent three hours in Addis and was “dispatched with no remark”, meaning no problems were flagged.
Asked if the pilot had made a distress call, the CEO said “the pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and he wants to return. He was given clearance” to turn around.
Not just MH370: four other baffling aviation mysteries
Ethiopian and international investigators will probe the crash, said GebreMariam.
For one family member in Nairobi there was a happy ending.
Khalid Ali Abdulrahman was waiting for his son who works in Dubai and feared the worst when a security official told him the plane had crashed.
“I was shocked, but soon after, my son contacted me and told me he is still in Addis and did not board that flight.”

US aerospace giant Boeing issued a statement about the disaster.
“Boeing is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a 737 MAX 8 aeroplane,” the company said in a statement. “We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team.”
The company said a “technical team” was ready to provide help.
The single-aisle Boeing 737 MAX is one of the world’s newest and most advanced commercial passenger jets. But the company has come under fire for possible glitches with the plane, including the Lion Air crash in October.
The Lion Air cockpit data recorder showed the jet’s airspeed indicator malfunctioned on its last four flights, though Lion Air initially claimed problems with the aircraft had been fixed.
US issues emergency safety directive on Boeing 737 after Lion Air crash
By the end of January, Boeing had delivered 350 MAX jets out of the total order tally of 5,011 aircraft.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co is the biggest operator of the MAX 8, with 31 aircraft, followed by American Airlines Group Inc and Air Canada with 24 each.
Southwest is in contact with Boeing and “remains confident in the safety and airworthiness of its fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft,” spokesman Chris Mainz said in a statement.

American and Air Canada said they were closely monitoring the investigation.
The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was in 2010, when a plane went down minutes after take-off from Beirut killing all 90 people on board.
Sunday’s crash came after Ahmed vowed to open up the airline and other sectors to foreign investment in a major transformation of the state-centred economy.
Ethiopian Airlines has been expanding assertively, recently opening a route to Moscow and in January inaugurating a new terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity.
Speaking at the inauguration, the prime minister challenged the airline to build a new “Airport City” terminal in Bishoftu – where Sunday’s crash occurred.
Associated Press, Agence France-Presse


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Plane crashes and aviation accidents

157 die in crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi

Chinese people and a Kenyan military officer use their mobile phones near the flight information board displaying the details of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302, where their colleagues were onboard at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, Kenya March 10, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

epa07426639 Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam inspects the newly-arrived Boeing 737 Max 8 (ET-AVM), the same aircraft that crashed in Ethiopia on 10 March 2019, at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when it was first delivered to Ethiopia on 02 July 2018 (issued 10 March 2019). Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 en route to Nairobi, Kenya, crashed near Bishoftu, some 50km outside of the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 10 March 2019. All passengers onboard the scheduled flight ET 302 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew members, have died, the airlines says. EPA-EFE/STR

epa07426620 A Djiboutian national Hiba (L) is comforted by a relative as she waits for details of her loved one that was on board the flight Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, Kenya, 10 March 2019. Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 en route to Nairobi, Kenya, crashed near Bishoftu, some 50km outside of the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 10 March 2019, the airline said in its statement. All passengers onboard the scheduled flight ET 302 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew members, have died, the airlines says. EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu

A woman reacts as she waits for the updated flight information of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302, where her fiance was onboard at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, Kenya March 10, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Red cross team work amid debris at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. - An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on March 10 morning en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi with 149 passengers and eight crew believed to be on board, Ethiopian Airlines said. (Photo by Michael TEWELDE / AFP)

Rescue team at the crash site of the Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 near Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. Photo: AFP

Ethiopian Airlines co-pilot hijacks own flight to seek Swiss asylum

Police stand by after passengers were evacuated from a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines plane. Photo: AP

Police evacuate passengers from an Ethiopian Airlines flight en route to Rome, which was on hijacked and forced to land in Geneva. Photo: AFP

Harry's view

Ethiopian military plane carrying ammunition crashes in Mogadishu

A firefighter puts out a fire that engulfed the crashed Ethiopian military transport. Photo: Reuters

Not just MH370: four other baffling aviation mysteries and the conspiracy theories they spawned

Family members hold candles during the fifth annual remembrance event for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 3. Photo: Reuters

FOR USE WITH "WORLD IN REVIEW"--FILE--Suhair Hathout cries after receiving the news that her sister and brother-in-law who lived in Ohio were travelling on EgyptAir Flight 990, which crashed in the Atlantic ocean after taking off from New York Oct. 31, 1999. The crash killed all 217 aboard. (AP Photo/Enric Marti, file)

American woman pilot Amelia Earhart who has vanished with her navigator Fred Noonan in the Pacific, July 2, 1937, during an attempt to circumnavegate the globe, stands in front of her plane, 1937. REUTERS

India’s aviation regulator wants pilots to train in a simulator that replicates the deadly Lion Air crash

Relatives of passengers on the crashed Lion Air jet check personal belongings retrieved from the waters where the airplane is believed to have crashed, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Oct. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

A Lion Air jet crashed into the sea on October 29, killing all 189 people on board. Photo: AFP

US aviation watchdog issues emergency safety directive on Boeing 737 Max after Lion Air crash

Members of the search team lift part of the landing gear of the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 during search operations at sea off the coast from Karawang on November 5, 2018. - The Boeing 737 Max 8 with 189 people plunged into the Java Sea just 12 minutes after takeoff on a routine one-hour flight from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang city in Sumatra on October 29. (Photo by AZWAR IPANK / AFP)

Members of the search team lift part of the landing gear of the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 during search operations at sea off the coast from Karawang on Monday. Photo: Agence France-Presse

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Victims were from 35 countries, including eight from China – one of them from Hong Kong
Boeing’s 737-800MAX is back in spotlight just five months after another deadly crash in Indonesia


Victims were from 35 countries, including eight from China – one of them from Hong Kong.


157 die in crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi

Victims were from 35 countries, including eight from China – one of them from Hong Kong Boeing’s 737-800MAX is back in spotlight just five months after another deadly crash in Indonesia

Victims were from 35 countries, including eight from China – one of them from Hong Kong

Boeing’s 737-800MAX is back in spotlight just five months after another deadly crash in Indonesia