Kenya says it is sending senior government officials to Ethiopia to assist with logistics and investigations following Sunday morning’s Ethiopian Airlines place crash.
Sarah Kimani, SABC East African foreign correspondent, is keeping tabs on the story reporting from Nairobi.
There were passengers from at least 35 nationalities aboard the ill-fated flight. Kenya is the worst affected with at least 32 of its citizens known to have perished in the crash.
The country’s transport minister has set up two tracing centres at the airport to provide support and information to those looking for their loved ones.
Ethiopian airlines say it had cleared the pilot of ET-302 to turn back to the airport, after he requested to return to Bole International Airport following technical difficulties. The plane crashed six minutes after take-off, reports Kimani.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian authorities have released the nationalities of those killed in a plan crash just south of the capital Addis Ababa. Officials say 32 Kenyans, nine Ethiopians, 18 Canadians, eight Chinese, seven each from America and Italy, seven each from France and Britain; six from Egypt; five from the Netherlands and four each from India and Slovakia were killed.
Flight ET-302 left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at eight-38 am local time, before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later. It crashed near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
CEO of Ethiopian Airlines,Tewolde Gebremariam, has visited the scene of a plane crash and offered his condolences to all the affected families.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says South African diplomatic missions in Addis Ababa and Nairobi have been directed to work with Ethiopian Airlines to ascertain whether there were any South Africans on board the plane.
Ramaphosa has also sent a message of condolences to the affected families.
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