One Nigerian, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, with a United Nations passport, was among the 157 people on board the ill-fated Ethiopian Airline flight 302 which crashed minutes after take off from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
Altogether, 35 nationalities were involved in the crash which involved a Boeing 737-800 Max aircraft.
The accident occurred around Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) after the aircraft with registration numberET- AVJ took off at 08:38 am local time from Addis Ababa, Bole International Airport and lost contact at 08:44am.
Passengers’ information, released by the airline on Sunday, indicated that the destination country suffered the highest casualties with 32 of its nationals involved, followed by Canada which lost 18 nationals while Ethiopian nationals were 9.
Others were China, Italy and USA which lost eight citizens each; France and UK had seven nationals on board; Egypt 6; Germany 5; India and Slovakia had 4 each; Austria, Russia, Sweden lost three nationals each while Spain, Israel, Morocco, Poland lost two nationals each.
Other countries with one national on board were Belgium, Djibouti, Indonesia, Ireland, Mozambique, Norway, Rwanda, Saudi, Sudan, Somalia, Serbia, Togo, Uganda, Yemen and Nepal.
No survivor
The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines had confirmed that there was no survivor.
In a release e-mailed to our correspondent, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, who had traveled to the scene of the crash, said “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.”
According to him, Ethiopian Airlines will provide all the necessary support to the families of the victims.
The statement disclosed that a senior captain named Yared Getachew, with a cumulative flight hour of more than 8000 and with a commendable performance, was commanding the flight along with first officer Ahmed Nur Mohammod Nur, who had a flight hour of 200.
The airline added that the crashed airplane flew back to Addis from Johannesburg Sunday morning before being positioned for the Nairobi flight.
It said the plane underwent “a rigorous first check maintenance in February 04,2019.”
About the flight
The aircraft was the same as the Lion Air plane which crashed in October, last year in Indonesia killing 189 people on board.
Experts have expressed concern over the fate of the B737-800.
Capt. Ibrahim Yunusa, a veteran pilot, told our correspondent that the aircraft might be suffering from design error.
