All 157 people on board Ethiopian Airlines plane die in crash en route to Nairobi

There are no survivors among 157 people on board an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Ethiopian Airlines has announced.

The 149 passengers and eight crew were of 33 nationalities, the country’s state broadcaster EBC reported on Sunday.

Ethiopia’s prime minister offered condolences to victims’ families.

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

“It is believed that there were 149 passengers and eight crew on board the flight but we are currently confirming the details of the passenger manifest for the flight,” according to the statement.

The plane took off at 8:38am (06:38 GMT) from Bole International Airport and “lost contact” six minutes later near Bishoftu, a town about 60km southeast of Addis Ababa by road.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office tweeted it “would like to express its deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning.”

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta offered prayers for the family members and loved-ones of those on the plane.

“We are saddened by the news of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger aircraft that is reported to have crashed 6 minutes after takeoff en route to Kenya. My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board,” Kenyatta said in Twitter.

Ethiopian Airlines said it would send staff to the accident scene to “do everything possible to assist the emergency services”.

The Boeing 737-800MAX is the same type of plane as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed last October, 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

The last major accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was a Boeing 737-800 that exploded after taking off from Lebanon in 2010, killing 83 passengers and seven crew.

Boeing Airlpanes said on its Twitter account that it was aware of the reports about Sunday’s accident and was “closely monitoring the situation”.