Ethiopian Airlines plane crashes on takeoff

An Ethiopian Airlines flight en route to Nairobi has crashed on takeoff. The airline has confirmed there were no survivors.

    

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on Sunday morning, shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa. The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were believed to be on board the Nairobi-bound flight. It confirmed there were no survivors.

Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, shortly after taking off at 8:38 a.m. local time, the airline said in a statement.  

Among the dead are 32 Kenyans, 17 Ethiopians and three Chinese. Passengers from Britain, France, the United States and Canada were also on board.  

A statement by the Ethiopia's prime minister's office expressed its "deepest condolences" to families of the victims.

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After takeoff 

The plane — which was delivered just last year — dropped from radar six minutes after departing Bole airport in Addis Ababa. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Ethiopian Airlines' CEO said the plane that crashed "had no known technical problems." Tewolde Gebremariam, who traveled to the accident scene said the pilot of the crashed plane had an £excellent flying record."

"Whatever the cause of the crash it could deliver a blow to the economic reform agenda of the new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who shortly after taking office in April 2018 announced opening Ethiopian Airlines to foreign investors," said Ludger Schadomsky, head of DW's Amharic service. 

Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38 a.m. local time, before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44 a.m.

Second major accident

The Boeing 737-800MAX is the same type of plane as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed last October, 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing 234 people.

US aerospace giant Boeing said in a statement it was "deeply saddened" about the deadly crash and would provide assistance to find out why its aircraft came down.  

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Boeing Statement on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302: https://boeing.mediaroom.com/news-releases-statements?item=130401 …

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'Africa's largest carrier'

The last major accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines plane was a Boeing 737-800 that exploded after taking off from Lebanon in 2010, killing 83 passengers and seven crew.

The Ethiopian state-owned airline — widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa — calls itself Africa's largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent. It recently opened a route to Moscow and in January inaugurated a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity as part of an ambitious expansion.