Louis Ibah
A Nigerian with a United Nations passport has been confirmed as one of the victims of the Ethiopian airliner that crashed this morning in Ethiopia while flying to Nairobi, Kenya.
According to the manifest, Kenya had 32 of her nationals on the fight; Canada 18, Ethiopia 9, China 8, Italy 8, US 8, UK 7, France 7, Egypt 6, while Germany had 5 nationals among other passengers.
The airline in a statement on Sunday made available to our correspondent said “it deeply regrets the fatal accident involving ET 302 on March 10, 2019, on a scheduled flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.
“The group CEO of Ethiopian Airline 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 statement added.
The airline said the aircraft with registration number ET- AVJ took off at 08:38 am local time from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport and lost contact with control towers at 08:44am.
Ethiopian Airline said once it lost contact with the aircraft, it quickly launched a search and rescue operation for possible survivors or casualties.
In an earlier statement while announcing the crash of the aircraft Ethiopian Airlines said staff were sent to the accident scene do everything possible to assist the emergency services.
“Ethiopian Airlines is establishing a passenger information centre and telephone number will be available shortly for family or friends of those who may have been on flight ET 302/10 March. Ethiopian Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available,” the airline added.