Four Indian passengers among 157 killed in Ethiopian Airlines plane crash

The Ethiopian Airlines CEO and Kenya's transport minister said Indians, Canadians, Chinese, Americans and others are among the many nationalities among the victims of Sunday morning's deadly plane crash after takeoff from Addis Ababa. Authorities earlier said 32 Kenyans and nine Ethiopians were killed. Now, they add 18 Canadians; eight each from China, the United States and Italy; seven each from France and Britain; six from Egypt; five from the Netherlands and four each from India and Slovakia.

All 157 people, 149 passengers and eight crew died in the crash. “We hereby confirm that our scheduled flight ET 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was involved in accident today," the airline said in a statement.

The airline said "search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties."        

The plane took off at 8:38 am (0638 GMT) from Bole International Airport and "lost contact" six minutes later.

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."

The cause of the crash of the new Boeing 737-8 MAX plane is not immediately known.

(With agency inputs)