Ethiopian Airlines Plane Crashes, All 157 People on Board, Including Kenyans, Confirmed Dead

All the 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft that has crashed on Sunday morning have been confirmed dead, the airline has announced.

The airline further says that the persons aboard the ET302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi are from 33 different countries.

“The Group CEO who is at the accident scene right now regrets to confirm that there are no survivors,” reads a statement from the airline.

The crash is reported to have happened at 08.44 local time, just six minutes after the flight left Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.

The cause of the crash is yet to be established.

The plane went down near the town of Bishoftu, which is 60km south-east of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

BBC reports that Boeing, the company that manufactured the aircraft, says it is "closely monitoring the situation".

Unconfirmed reports indicate that 32 of the passengers on board are Kenyans, 18 Canadians, 9 Ethiopians, 8 Chinese, 8 Italians, 8 Americans, 7 Britons, and 7 French citizens.

Others are 6 Egyptians, 5 Dutch nationals, 4 with UN passports, 4 Indians, 3 Russians, 2 Moroccans, 2 Israelis while Belgium, Uganda, Yemen, Sudan, Togo, Mozambique, and Norway had one each.