Amir mourns 157 dead in Ethiopian jet crash

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This photo taken Monday, Feb. 11, 2019 shows an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 parked at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner carrying 157 people crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital Sunday, March 10, 2019 killing everyone aboard, authorities said. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

KUWAIT CITY, March 10, (Agencies): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah expressed his deepest sympathies on Sunday after an Ethiopian Airlines flight on its way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi crashed with 157 passengers onboard.

His Highness the Amir extended his condolences in a cable he sent to Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde, saying he was distraught over the terrible tragedy. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar messages to the Ethiopian leader.

The Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board and raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that also crashed in Indonesia in October. Sunday’s flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8:38 am (0538 GMT), before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8:44 am. “There are no survivors,” the airline tweeted alongside a picture of CEO Tewolde GebreMariam holding up a piece of debris inside a large crater at the crash site.

Passengers from 33 countries were aboard, said Tewolde in a news conference. The dead included Kenyan, Ethiopian, American, Canadian, French, Chinese, Egyptian, Swedish, British, Dutch, Indian, Slovakian, Austrian, Swedish, Russian, Moroccan, Spanish, Polish, and Israeli citizens. Weeping relatives begged for information at airports in Nairobi and Addis Ababa. “We’re just waiting for my mum. We’re just hoping she took a different flight or was delayed. She’s not picking up her phone,” said Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and weeping. The aircraft, a 737 MAX 8, is the same model that crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on Oct 29, killing all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight. The cause of that crash is still under investigation. Ethiopian’s new aircraft had no recorded technical problems and the pilot had an “excellent” flying record, Tewolde said in a news conference.

“We received the airplane on Nov 15, 2018. It has flown more than 1,200 hours. It had flown from Johannesburg earlier this morning,” he said. “The pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and that he wanted to return.” Flight ET 302, registration number ETAVJ, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kms (38 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, with 149 passengers and eight crew aboard, the airline said. The flight had unstable vertical speed after takeoff, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted.

The aircraft had shattered into many pieces and was severely burnt, a Reuters reporter at the scene of the crash said. Clothing and personal effects were scattered widely over the field where the plane came down. It was not clear what had caused the crash. Boeing sent condolences to the families and said it was ready to help investigate. This is the second recent crash of the latest version of Boeing’s workhorse narrow body jet that first entered service in 2017. The 737 is the world’s best selling modern passenger aircraft and one of the industry’s most reliable.

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