An Ethiopian Aircraft, a Boeing 737 Max-8 crashed this morning at about 08:44 local time, six minutes after take-off killing everyone on board the plane.
The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were on flight ET302 from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi in Kenya.
According to reports from eye witnesses, there a loud bang and huge fire as the plane crashed, making it difficult for anybody to get close to it.
The cause of the disaster is not yet clear. However, the pilot had reported difficulties and had asked to return to Addis Ababa, the airline said.
"At this stage, we cannot rule out anything," Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.
"We cannot also attribute the cause to anything because we will have to comply with the international regulation to wait for the investigation."
Mr Gebremariam told the news conference that passengers from more than 30 countries were on board the flight.
He said they included 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Italians, eight Chinese, eight Americans, seven Britons, seven French citizens, six Egyptians, five Dutch citizens, four Indians and four people from Slovakia.
Slovak MP Anton Hrnko later confirmed via Facebook that his wife and two children were on the plane.
Three Austrians, three Swedes, three Russians, two Moroccans, two Spaniards, two Poles and two Israelis were also on the flight.
A Nigerian is also said to be on the flight.
Recovery operations were under way near the crash site around the town of Bishoftu, which is 60km (37 miles) south-east of the capital.
The plane was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines on 15 November last year, records show.
So sad.
Source: BBC
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