Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi crashes killing all 157 people onboard

An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed on Sunday morning while flying from Addis Ababa to Kenyan capital Nairobi, with all the 157 people on board killed.

Flight ET302, operated on a Boeing 737-800 Max aircraft, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, some 60 kilometres southeast of the Ethiopian capital, six minutes after takeoff.

The flight took off at 8.38am local time from Addis Ababa before losing contact at 8.44am.

It was carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members of 33 different nationalities – none of whom survived, according to an airline statement.

Accident Bulletin no. 2
Issued on march 10, 2019 at 01:46 PM pic.twitter.com/KFKX6h2mxJ

— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office first confirmed the incident on Twitter.

“The office of the PM, on behalf of government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s deepest condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning,” the official Twitter account said.

The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning.

— Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) March 10, 2019

Ethiopian Airlines said it was organising search operations and setting up a passenger information centre.

Accident Bulletin no. 1
Issued on march 10, 2019 at 11:00am
Ethiopian Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available. Updated information will also be on Ethiopian Airlines website at https://t.co/Je7pXoKxHh pic.twitter.com/07wKZHPVPl

— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019

Boeing said in a tweet that it was “closely monitoring the situation”.

Boeing Statement on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302: https://t.co/0jyiFuGHIE pic.twitter.com/NfE5S4LSlz

— Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) March 10, 2019

The reason for the crash is not yet known.