4 Indians among 157 killed in crash
Accident similar to last year’s Lion Air crash that also involved the Boeing 737 Max 8
ADDISABABA: At least four Indians were among 157 people on board an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed shortly after take-off on Sunday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa while heading to Nairobi in Kenya.
There were no survivors, state TV reported. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash of the Boeing 737-8 MAX plane, which was new and had been delivered to the airline in November, according to records.
India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed the deaths of the four Indians and said she has asked the Indian high commissioner in Ethiopia to provide all help and assistance to the bereaved families. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), meanwhile, will seek information from Boeing as well as Jet Airways and SpiceJet operating Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the wake of the plane crash, according to a senior official.
The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines is widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa.
It said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on the plane that crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa on its way to Kenya’s capital. The crash occurred around Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 km south of Addis Ababa, at 8.44 am local time.
The plane had showed unstable vertical speed after take-off, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said. State broadcaster EBC reported all passengers were dead and that they included 33 nationalities.
ADDIS ABABA : Four Indians were among 157 people killed when an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed shortly after take-off on Sunday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa while heading to Nairobi in Kenya.
Authorities said at least 35 nationalities were among the dead. It was not clear what caused the plane to go down in clear weather. But the accident was strikingly similar to last year’s crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Both crashes involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and both happened minutes after the jets became airborne.
The Ethiopian pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return to the airport, the airline’s CEO told reporters.
The accident is likely to renew questions about the 737 Max, the newest version of Boeing’s popular single-aisle airliner.
Indonesian investigators have not determined a cause for the October crash, but days after the accident Boeing sent a notice to airlines that faulty information from a sensor could cause the plane to automatically point the nose down. The notice reminded pilots of the procedure for handling such a situation.
The Lion Air cockpit data recorder showed that the jet’s airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights, though the airline initially said problems with the aircraft had been fixed before it left the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
The Ethiopian Airlines CEO “stated there were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet,” said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide.
The Ethiopian plane was new, having been delivered to the airline in November. It was on a flight from Addis Ababa to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Grieving families rushed to airports in both cities.
State-owned Ethiopian Airlines is widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa and calls itself Africa’s largest carrier. It has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent and is known as an early buyer of new aircraft.
“Ethiopian Airlines is one of the safest airlines in the world. At this stage we cannot rule out anything,” CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said.
The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on the plane.
Ethiopian Airlines issued a list showing 35 nationalities among the dead, including 32 Kenyans and 18 Canadians. The list reflected a broad range of backgrounds, with passengers from China, the US, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Israel, and Somalia.
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Why are they taking us round and round, it is all over the news that the plane crashed. All we are asking for is information to know about their fate EDWIN ONG’UNDI, waiting for news of his sister who was on the plane