Disaster marks second crash for Boeing 737 Max 8 in four months, with passengers from 35 different countries

Ethiopian Airlines crash – a visual guide to what we know so far

An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on Sunday near Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. Here’s what we know about the crash.

What do we know so far about the flight?

The black box recorder has been recovered from the wreckage, which should reveal technical flight data as well as the cockpit voice recordings. Until that evidence is analysed and released, the only available data has come from tracking websites such as Flightradar24.

Flight ET302 took off from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, at 8.38am local time (5.38am GMT) and crashed approximately six minutes later, on its way to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in rural land near the town of Bishoftu.

According to the airline, the captain of the plane had reported difficulties and requested permission to turn back.

Flight radar data shows that the aircraft was climbing erratically, with an unstable vertical airspeed.

Conflicting witness reports from locals on the ground have been given to TV crews. One man told the BBC that the plane had dropped straight from the sky, with no visible flames before impact; another told CNN that he had seen smoke coming from the back of the aircraft before it crashed.

Play Video 1:34 Ethiopia plane crash: what we know about the disaster so far – video

How does the crash compare to what we know about Lion Air Flight 610?

The disaster was the second involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 in the past four months. In October, a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea off the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, killing all 189 people onboard.

The undisputed similarity is that both planes that were the same model of Boeing 737: a new iteration, the Max 8, that first flew in 2017 and had only been in service a matter of months for Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines; and in both cases, the pilots reported difficulties immediately after takeoff.

'Why did it fly?' Grief mixes with anger over crashed Lion Air flight Read more

While the investigation is still continuing into the Lion Air crash, the plane showed sharp changes of altitude, which suggested the pilots may have been effectively trying to wrestle against in-flight control systems designed to prevent a stall.

However, the publicity around that crash and immediate warnings to airlines and pilots from Boeing and aviation regulators, highlighting the software changes in the 737 Max autopilot and reminding pilots of operational procedures, would appear to make it unlikely that crew would be unaware if the same issue arose.

How important is the 737 Max plane to Boeing?

The plane has become the fastest selling in history: more than 5,000 orders placed, and more than 350 in service. At its officially listed price ($121m per plane), that amounts to more than $600bn worth of planes sold already and being manufactured, though most airlines will have bought them at a substantial discount.

Southwest Airlines has ordered more Boeing 737 Max 8 jets than any other airline... Southwest Airlines has ordered more Boeing 737 Max 8 jets than any other airline...

... it has also had more of them delivered than any other airline ... it has also had more of them delivered than any other airline

Boeing’s 737 was already the most common plane in the sky, a short-haul workhorse. The latest iteration promised significantly greater fuel efficiency, more seats on a similar-sized plane, and a longer range – a promise that has seen airlines all around the world clamour to buy them. Ryanair alone has signed up for 150.

What do we know of the victims?

The crash killed 157 people from 35 different countries, including eight crew members. The victims included 32 Kenyan citizens, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight from Italy, China and the US, and seven from the UK and France.

Among them were aid workers, doctors and delegates heading to a UN environment assembly in Nairobi.

How does Ethiopian Airlines’ safety record stack up?

Ethiopian has been regarded as a standard bearer among African airlines, on a continent where aviation safety has lagged behind the rest of the world. Despite Ethiopian’s mostly good record, a notable exemption was a crash in 2010 off Lebanon that killed 90 people and was ascribed to pilot error by investigators, although the airline disputed the findings.

But it has not had great fortune as an early adopter of Boeing planes: an electrical fault saw a 787 Dreamliner catch fire at Heathrow in 2013.

What do other carriers and regulators say?

Regulators in the UK and Australia have suspended the operation of all 737 Max models in their airspace, while Singapore and Malaysia have also stopped the planes from flying into and out of their airports. China and Indonesia have grounded all their 737 Max planes, as have Oman and South Korea. Some airlines have also independently grounded their 737 Max planes.