Flight ET302 — No Survivors, Confirmed!

By IndraStra Global News Team

By IndraStra Global News Team

On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 (reg. ET-AVJ) plunged to the ground minutes after leaving Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (from the Ethiopian capital) en route to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 people on board. The plane took off at 8:38 a.m and lost contact at 8:44 a.m. local time (six minutes after taking off) and went down near Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa. Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 reports the jet’s vertical speed was unstable after takeoff.

Image Attribute: Flight track of Ethiopian Airlines ET302 / Source: FlightRadar24

According to the statement released by the airline, there are no survivors — all 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board perished. The victims are from more than 30 different countries including the U.S. The list includes passengers from Kenya, China, the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Israel, India, and Somalia.

The plane involved in the accident is Boeing 737 Max 8 which was delivered to the airline only 5 months ago in October 2018. It is the same type of plane as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed last October (2018), 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

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The flight was captained by Kenyan-born Yared Mulugeta Getachew who had extensive experience with a flying time of 8,231 hours and had been a Boeing captain since November of 2017. His first officer was Ahmed Nur Mohammod Nur who had a flight hour of 200.

The crew had alerted controllers that he was experiencing difficulties and wanted to turn back the plane, Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said. The pilot "was given clearance" to return to Addis, GebreMariam told journalists in Addis Ababa, after visiting the crash site.

In a statement posted on its Twitter page, the Ethiopian airlines wrote: "It is too early to speculate the cause of the accident and further investigation will be carried out to find out the cause of the accident in collaboration with all stakeholders including the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and other International entities to maintain the international standard and information will be provided once the cause is identified. Ethiopian Airlines will provide all the necessary support to the families of the victims."

The makers of the aircraft have released a press statement extending the "sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board." At the time of press release, Boeing activated its resources to deploy a technical team to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau (EAIB) and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).