By TOM CHIAHEMEN
The Management of Ethiopian Airlines said this afternoon it was too early to speculate the cause of the accident involving Flight ET 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, which claimed 157 lives in the early hours of Sunday.
The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed today shortly after take-off en route to the Kenyan capital from Addis Ababa, killing all passengers and crew members on board.
At a press conference held at Ethiopian Airlines Headquarters this afternoon, the Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam, who had traveled to the scene of the crash remarked,” It is too early to speculate the cause of the accident,” assuring that further investigation would be carried out to find out the cause of the accident.
According to Gebremariam, the investigation would be carried out “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.”
The Group CEO also announced that Ethiopian Airlines “will provide all the necessary support to the families of the victims.”
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.
149 passengers and 8 crew members were on board the flight.
Giving an update on the nationalities of the diseased passengers, the airline said the victims were of 35 Nationalities.
It explained that the crashed B-737-800MAX airplane flew back to Addis from Johannesburg this morning to its yet another flight bound to Nairobi underwent a rigorous first check maintenance in February 04,2019.
While expressing its profound sorrow and deepest condolences to the families of the victims and their loved ones on the tragic plane accident, Ethiopian Airlines Group promised to release further information as soon as it is available.