Last 6 minutes of fatal flight
157 DEAD: PASSENGERS FROM 33 COUNTRIES WERE ON DEADLY ETHIOPIA PLANE
Pilot ‘had difficulties and wanted to return’ as relatives wait hours without any news.
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet to Nairobi crashed early yesterday, killing 149 passengers and eight crew, the airline said – just six minutes after take-off. The same model also crashed during a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in October.
Yesterday’s flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38am, before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44am.
“The group CEO deeply regrets to confirm there are no survivors,” the airline tweeted alongside a picture of Tewolde GebreMariam in a suit holding a piece of debris inside a large crater.
Passengers from 33 countries were aboard, said Tewolde in a news conference. The dead included Kenyan, Ethiopian, American, Canadian, French, Chinese, Egyptian, Swedish, British and Dutch citizens.
At Nairobi airport, many relatives of passengers were left waiting at the gate for hours, with no information from airport authorities.
Some learned of the crash from journalists.
“We’re just waiting for my mum. We’re just hoping she took a different flight or was delayed. She’s not picking up her phone,” said Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and weeping.
Robert Mutanda, 46, was waiting for his brother-in-law, a Canadian citizen.
“No, we haven’t seen anyone from the airline or the airport,” he said at 1pm, more than three hours after the flight was lost. “Nobody has told us anything, we are just standing here hoping for the best.”
Kenyan officials did not arrive at the airport until 1.30pm, five hours after the plane went down.
James Macharia, the cabinet secretary for transport, said he heard about the crash via Twitter.
Flight ET 302, registration number ET-AVJ, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62km southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said.
“The pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and that he wanted to return. He was given the clearance (to return back),” said Tewolde during his news conference.
The flight had unstable vertical speed after take off, said flight tracking website Flightradar24 on its Twitter feed.
The aircraft had shattered into many pieces and was severely burnt, a Reuters reporter at the scene of the crash said.
The airline had earlier incorrectly identified the plane’s model number, but later confirmed it was a 737 MAX 8.
It’s not clear what caused the crash. Boeing sent condolences to the families and said it was ready to help investigate.
“A Boeing technical team is prepared to provide technical assistance at the request and under the direction of the US National Transportation Safety Board,” the company said in a statement.
This is the second recent crash of the relatively new 737 MAX 8, the latest version of Boeing’s workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017.
The same model crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta on October 29, killing all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight.
The cause of that crash is still under investigation.
A preliminary report issued in November, before the cockpit voice recorder was recovered, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor, but did not give a reason for the crash.
A final report is due later this year.
The plane is the latest version of the 737, the world’s best selling modern passenger aircraft and one of the industry’s most reliable.
Investigators will seek to secure the crash site and collect evidence starting with black boxes capturing cockpit conversations and data, while compiling records on recent operations of the plane and the crew.
Few tragedies are as heart-wrenching as air crashes: people on their way to family, to friends, to work, to play, have their lives suddenly snuffed out, as with the flick of a switch. That is why we feel for the relatives, friends and colleagues of the 157 people who perished in yesterday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash. We extend our deepest sympathies and hope you eventually find some sort of comfort.
Ethiopian Airlines operates the biggest and most modern aircraft fleet in Africa and is also the continent’s most profitable airline. It has a good safety record and is respected around the world.
The aircraft, which crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa bound for Kenya yesterday, was only four months old.
The crash is the second involving such a plane, Boeing’s new 737 Max 8, a revised and upgraded version of the world’s best-selling passenger aircraft. Last year, an Indonesian Lion Air 737 MAX8 plunged into the sea after take-off, killing all 189 people abroad.
There is no evidence at the moment that the incidents are linked. But if there is a problem with the plane, it should be grounded worldwide for rectification of any faults.
Lives cannot be placed at risk.