Ethiopian Airlines is currently giving more details of the passengers who were on board ET 302 that crashed on Sunday shortly after taking off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.
The numbers we have so far are:
- 32 passengers were Kenyan
- 18 Canada
- 9 Ethiopian
- 8 Chinese
- 8 Italian
- 8 US
- 7 British
- 7 France
- 6 Egypt
- 5 Netherlands
- 4 UN passport
- 4 Indian
- 3 Russian
- 2 Moroccan
- 2 Israeli
- 1 Belgian
- 1 Ugandan
- 1 Yemeni
- 1 Sudanese
- 1 Togo
- 1 Mozambican
- 1 Norwegian
Following confirmation of the fatalities, Kenya’s Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said a team led by Principal Secretary Esther Koimett has been sent to Ethiopia.
Some of the nationalities of those who have died have not yet been confirmed. So far, authorities have confirmed nationalities of 130 people.
The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam said the captain of the crashed plane had told controllers at Bole airport that he was having difficulty and wanted to return, and that he had been given clearance.
He also said that the plane had arrived on Sunday morning from South Africa.
“[The] plane had more than three hours of ground time after coming from South Africa, it arrived with no remark and was dispatched with no remark.”
Mr Tewolde said smoke was still smouldering at the crash site when he visited.
A US-based independent agency that investigates aviation accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board, will send a team to help investigate the Ethiopian Airlines crash, a Reuters journalist reports.
The Boeing 737-800MAX crashed around the town of Bishoftu, 60km southeast of the capital. It was travelling to Nairobi, Kenya.
