By Roy Mabasa

The Philippine government on Sunday directed the country’s embassies in Egypt and Kenya to coordinate with concerned authorities in Addis Ababa and Nairobi to determine if there are Filipinos among the 33 foreign nationalities on board the ill-fated aircraft.

This after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has confirmed that a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed, killing an unspecified number of those who were on board.

Earlier, Ethiopian Airlines issued a statement confirming that the flight has crashed with 149 passengers and eight crew members on board.

“We hereby confirm that our scheduled flight ET 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was involved in accident today”, the airline said in the statement.

Reports indicated that the plane took off at 8:38 a.m. local time (1:44 p.m. in Manila) from Addis Ababa and lost contact at 08:44 a.m.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs conveyed its condolences to Ethiopia.

“The loved ones of those who perished in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 are in our thoughts and prayers,” it said.