A regularly scheduled flight from Bole airport in Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya crashed at 8.44am local time (5.44am GMT), after taking off at 8.38am. Ethiopia Airlines released a statement stating they had lost contact with the flight just six minutes after it took off. The flight has crashed 60km south-east of the airport.
How many people have died?
It has emerged that there are no survivors out of the 157 on board in a statement from an airline spokesperson to Ethiopia’s state broadcaster.
There were people from 33 different nationalities on board, the spokesperson added.
The Ethiopian Airlines Corporate Communications Director Asrat Begashaw has said there will be a press conference held shortly.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted earlier confirming deaths but did not give a number.
The tweet read: ”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.“
Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometres southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said, confirming the plane was a Boeing 737-800 MAX.”
“It is confirmed it happened 8.44am,” said the spokesman who did not give his name.
The prime minister’s office sent condolences via Twitter to the families of those lost in the crash.
A statement from Ethiopian Airlines reads: “Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO deeply regrets the fatal accident involved on ET 302 /March 10 on a scheduled flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.
“The group CEO who is at the accident scene right now regrets to confirm that there are no survivors.
“He expresses his profound sympathy and condolences to the families and loved ones of passengers and crew who lost their lives in this tragic accident.”
The earlier statement told of 149 passengers and eight crew members on board, putting the death toll at 157.
Of the passengers “eight Chinese citizens were aboard” according to Chinese state TV.
Swedish flight-tracking website flightradar24 said that the Boeing 737 passenger jet “had unstable vertical speed”.
The Swedish-based flight tracking organisation said on its Twitter feed: “Data from Flightradar24 ADS-B network show that vertical speed was unstable after take off.”
At Nairobi airport, many passengers were waiting at the gate, and are yet to receive information from airport authorities.
Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and wept as she told Reuters: “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.”
Robert Mudanta, 46, was waiting for his brother-in-law coming from Canada.
Mr Mudanta told Reuters at 1pm, more than three hours after the flight was lost: “No, we haven’t seen anyone from the airline or the airport.
“Nobody has told us anything, we are just standing here hoping for the best.”