An Ethiopian Airlines jet has crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all on board.
A man inspecting what is believed to be wreckage at the crash site of an Ethiopia Airlines aircraft near Bishoftu, a town some 60km southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo: AFP / Twitter / Ethiopian Airlines
The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were on flight ET302 from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi in Kenya.
It said 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, eight Americans and seven British nationals were among the passengers.
The crash happened at 8.44am local time, six minutes after the months-old Boeing 737 Max-8 took off.
The cause of the disaster is not yet clear. However, the pilot had reported difficulties and had asked to return to Addis Ababa, the airline said.
"At this stage, we cannot rule out anything," Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.
"We cannot also attribute the cause to anything because we will have to comply with the international regulation to wait for the investigation."
Visibility was said to be good but air traffic monitor Flightradar24 reported that the plane's "vertical speed was unstable after take-off".
An eyewitness at the scene told the BBC there was an intense fire as the aircraft hit the ground.
"The blast and the fire were so strong that we couldn't get near it," he said. "Everything is burnt down."
First word of the crash came when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed expressed his "deepest condolences" on Twitter.
Recovery operations were under way near the crash site around the town of Bishoftu, which is 60km south-east of the capital.
The plane was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines on 15 November last year, records show.
Teams continue the debris removal operation at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines near Debre Zeit, a town about 50km south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo: AFP
Passengers from more than 30 countries
Mr Gebremariam told the news conference that passengers from more than 30 countries were on board the flight.
He said they included 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Italians, eight Chinese, eight Americans, seven Britons, seven French citizens, six Egyptians, five Dutch citizens, four Indians and four people from Slovakia.
Slovak MP Anton Hrnko later confirmed via Facebook that his wife and two children were on the plane.
Three Austrians, three Swedes, three Russians, two Moroccans, two Spaniards, two Poles and two Israelis were also on the flight.
There was also one passenger each from Belgium, Indonesia, Somalia, Norway, Serbia, Togo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen.
Four people held United Nations passports, the airline said, and it believed some passengers could have been heading to a session of the UN Environment Assembly which begins in Nairobi on Monday.
The pilot was named as Senior Captain Yared Getachew who had a "commendable performance" with more than 8000 hours in the air, the airline said.
The plane's First Officer Ahmed Nur Mohammod Nur had 200 flight hours, it said.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government was "in close contact with Ethiopian authorities".
The British ambassador to Ethiopia, Alastair McPhail, said consular staff were "working hard to establish the details".
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with the people of Ethiopia and Kenya, tweeting: "We share their sorrow."
African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed "utter shock and immense sadness" while Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said he was "saddened".
Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of the East African bloc Igad, said the region was in mourning.
"I cannot seem to find words comforting enough to the families and friends of those who might have lost their lives in this tragedy," he said in a statement.
Plane launched in 2016
The 737 Max-8 aircraft is relatively new to the skies, having been launched in 2016. It was added to the Ethiopian Airlines fleet in July last year.
Boeing said it was "deeply saddened" by the crash and offered to send a team to provide technical assistance.
Another plane of the same model was involved in a crash five months ago, when a Lion Air flight crashed into the sea near Indonesia with nearly 190 people on board.
Investigators say the pilots of that aircraft had appeared to struggle with an automated system designed to keep the plane from stalling - a new feature of the Boeing 737 Max.
The anti-stalling system repeatedly forced the plane's nose down, despite efforts by pilots to correct this, findings suggest.
There is no suggestion that the Ethiopian Airlines jet suffered similar issues on Sunday.
Airline safety record
Ethiopian Airlines flies to many destinations in Africa, making it a popular carrier in a continent where many airlines fly only from their home country to destinations outside Africa.
It has a good reputation for safety, although in 2010 one of the company's aeroplanes crashed in the Mediterranean Sea shortly after leaving Beirut.
The incident killed 90 people on board.
The airline's highest fatalities prior to this came in a November 1996 crash during a hijacking on a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.
One of the plane's engines stopped when the fuel ran out and although pilots attempted an emergency water landing, they hit a coral reef in the Indian Ocean and 123 of the 175 people on board were killed.
- BBC
