An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on a routine flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya has crashed, with 149 passengers and eight crew members on board.
It was not clear whether there were any survivors in the crash that occurred Sunday morning.
A message of condolence by the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed suggested that there were some deaths.
“The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, 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”, the message on government’s Twitter handle read.
An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said the crash occurred at 8:44 a.m. local time.
The aircraft B-737-800 MAX, registered as ET-AVJ took off at 8.38 am and crashed six minutes after.
An official statement by the airline said search and rescue operation has been triggered. It said it could not confirm whether there were survivors.
Here is the official statement by the airline:
