Ethiopian Airlines: Brand New Boeing Crashes After Take Off, Killing 157 Onboard
TRAGEDY
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 lost contact with air traffic control six minutes after take-off early Sunday morning. The Boeing 737 Max 8 carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members left Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 8:38 a.m. local time Sunday morning and crashed at 8:44 a.m. near Bishoftu, 38 miles southeast of the capital. There were no survivors, according to local media reports. Weather conditions were reportedly perfect at the time. According to Flight Radar website, this particular aircraft made its first flight in November 2018. It was the same type of new aircraft involved in the Lion Air disaster in Jakarta, Indonesia in October of 2018. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed first confirmed the tragic accident on his Twitter account. “The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning.” Ethiopian Airlines tweeted a photo from the crash scene. “The group CEO who is at the accident scene right now regrets to confirm that there are no survivors.”