Six Egyptians Among Ethiopian Airlines Crash Victims

An Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed after take-off from Addis Ababa to Nairobi in Kenya at 8:44 a.m. local time, six minutes after taking off from Bole International Airport in the Ethiopian capital.

The airline said that all 157 people from more than 30 countries on board have been killed, which included six Egyptians whose names still remain unidentified.

Accident Bulletin no. 3

Issued on March 10, 2019 at 4:59 PM pic.twitter.com/5UOxsbl24f — Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019

“At this stage, we cannot rule out anything,” Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters, “we cannot also attribute the cause to anything because we will have to comply with the international regulation to wait for the investigation.”

Air traffic monitor Flightradar24 reported that the plane’s “vertical speed was unstable after take-off”.

Additional data from Flightradar24 ADS-B network show that vertical speed was unstable after take off. Take off 05:38:18 UTC

Last position received by FR24 at 05:41:02 UTC Please note that Addis Ababa airport is located at 7,625 feet AMSL. pic.twitter.com/Uyvfp1x9Xb — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 10, 2019

Investigators say that the pilots of the 737 Max-8 aircraft have been struggling with a new feature of the aircraft, which is an automated system designed to keep the plane from stalling.

The last crash by the airline was in 2010 when one of the company’s aeroplanes crashed in the Mediterranean Sea after leaving Beirut.

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