Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed six minutes after takeoff near the town of Bishoftu, killing all 157 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft.

The accident is the deadliest suffered by Ethiopian Airlines, and the deadliest aviation accident in Ethiopia. Following the accident, the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded in several countries.

Accident

Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 which took off from Addis Ababa 08:38 local time (05:38 UTC) with 149 passengers and 8 crew on board. The pilot reported a problem and requested to return to Addis Ababa, but the aircraft then disappeared from the radar and crashed six minutes after takeoff at 08:44. It crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometres (39 mi) southeast of Bole International Airport. Photographs of the accident site show a large crater with only small pieces of wreckage. There were no survivors.

Aircraft

The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered ET-AVJ (construction number 62450, msn7243) powered by two CFM International LEAP engines. The aircraft was manufactured in October 2018 and delivered 15 November 2018, making it around four months old at the time of the accident.

Passengers and crew

All passengers and crew on board were killed in the accident. Amongst the 157 occupants there were 33 nationalities on board. Many of the passengers were travelling to Nairobi to attend the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly. Twelve of the victims worked for the United Nations. Among the victims were the Italian archaeologist and Councillor for Cultural Heritage of Sicily, Sebastiano Tusa, and Canadian academic Pius Adesanmi. It was originally reported that there were five Dutch victims, but this was later corrected to state that they were German.

The nationalities of the passengers and crew included the following:

NationalityshowNumber of Fatalities

Reactions

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed offered his condolences to the families of the victims. Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam visited the accident site, confirmed that there were no survivors and expressed sympathy and condolences. Boeing issued a statement of condolence.

In response to the crash, Ethiopian parliament has declared Monday, 12 March as a day of national mourning. During the opening of the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, a minute of silence was observed in sympathy with the victims of the crash.

Flight International commented that the accident would likely increase unease felt in the aftermath of the Lion Air Flight 610 accident in October 2018. Due to the latest accident having occurred less than five months after the prior accident, there have been calls to suspend operations of 737 MAX aircraft until a cause can be determined. Ethiopian Airlines announced that it had grounded its remaining 737 MAX fleet effective immediately as an extra safety precaution. The Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered all domestic airlines to suspend operations of all 737 MAX aircraft pending the results of the investigation. A similar response was enacted by Cayman Airways, in that operation of its pair of 737 MAX aircraft was suspended until further notice. On 11 March, the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation issued a temporary suspension on the operation of every Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia. A nationwide inspection on the type is expected to take place on 12 March. South Korea's Transportation Ministry stated that an emergency safety inspection will be immediately held on the country's two Boeing 737 MAX 8, while India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation will hold talks with Boeing and Jet Airways and SpiceJet on the operation of the aircraft.

Groundings

As a result of the crash, airlines began grounding the Boeing 737 MAX due to safety concerns. Airlines which grounded the Boeing 737 MAX after the accident:

CountryAirlineEffectiveshowSource

Investigation

The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority is responsible for investigating civil aviation accidents in Ethiopia. The aircraft manufacturer Boeing stated that it is prepared to work with the United States National Transportation Safety Board and assist Ethiopian Airlines. The United States Federal Aviation Administration will also assist in the investigation.

Both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were recovered from the crash site on 11 March.

Context

Flight 302 was the first fatal accident occurring on an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft since Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed in January 2010. It is the deadliest aircraft accident in Ethiopian Airlines history, superseding the fatal hijacking of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 near Comoros in 1996. It is also the deadliest aircraft accident to occur in Ethiopia, superseding the crash of an Ethiopian Air Force Antonov An-26 in 1982, which killed 73.

The accident aircraft type, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 first flew on 29 January 2016, entering service in 2017, making it one of the newest aircraft in Boeing's commercial airliner offerings, and the newest generation of Boeing 737. As of January 2019, 350 have been produced, and one other has crashed, Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia in October 2018. According to safety experts, Boeing withheld information about potential hazards associated with a new flight-control feature suspected of playing a role in the Lion Air jet accident.

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Victims

The African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe said its co-chairman, Karim Saafi, 

Save the Children said its child protection in emergencies adviser, Tamirat Mulu Demessie

UK

At least nine British nationals were on the flight, the Foreign Office said.

Sam Pegram, 25, an aid worker from Lancashire who was travelling to Nairobi to deliver a training programme, was named as one of them.

Sahra Hassan Said and her son Nasrudin Abdulkadir, both dual Somali-British nationals

The first British victim to be named was Joanna Toole, a 36-year-old environmental campaigner from Exmouth, Devon, who worked for the fisheries and aquaculture department of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Sarah Auffret, 30, another victim, was believed to be a French-British dual citizen. The Plymouth University graduate was an environmental agent for the Norway-based Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators and had been travelling to the same UN event.

Joseph Waithaka, 55, a Kenyan and British dual national

Waithaka, who had worked for Humberside probation trust, saw his son on Saturday in Croydon, south London, before heading off to Kenya via Addis Ababa.

Nigeria

Abiodun Oluremi Bashua, a Nigerian ambassador, was also killed in the crash. The Nigerian foreign ministry said it received the news of his death “with great shock”.

Pius Adesanmi, a Nigerian professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, also died on the flight.

He won the inaugural Penguin prize for African non-fiction writing in 2010. Photograph: Josh Hotz/AP

Adesanmi, the author of Naija No Dey Carry Last, a collection of satirical essays, was described as a “towering figure in African and postcolonial scholarship” by Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Carleton’s president and vice-chancellor.

Ireland

Ryan worked for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) as a global deputy chief engineer, and had been on a work trip in Ethiopia.

 Michael Ryan. Photograph: World Food Programme/PA

Germany

The German national Anne-Katrin Feigl was named as a victim of the crash by the International Organisation for Migration.

She was on her way to a training course in Nairobi as part of her role as a junior professional officer at the organisation.

Rev Norman Tendis, 51, was also among the victims. The pastor was based in Austria and was travelling to the UN environment summit.

Italy

Three members of the humanitarian organisation Africa Tremila, based in Bergamo, were onboard.

The aid group’s president,

Carlo Spini, his wife,

Gabriella Viggiani, and its treasurer,

Matteo Ravasio, were among eight Italians killed.

Virginia Chimenti and Maria Pilar Buzzetti, who worked for the WFP, also died.

Sebastiano Tusa, 66, an underwater archaeologist, was killed, the Italian government said. He had been flying to Kenya to work on a project with Unesco.

Kenya

Senior Capt Yared Mulugeta Gatechew, who was of Kenyan and Ethiopian heritage, was the main pilot onflight 302 and had been working for the airline since November 2007.

Hussein Swaleh, a former secretary general of the Football Kenya Federation, who was due to return home on the flight after working as the match commissioner in an African Champions League game in Egypt on Friday.

Cedric Asiavugwa, a law student at Georgetown University in Washington DC. 

Anthony Ngare, a former journalist who was working for the UN’s cultural agency Unesco. The 49-year-old had recently represented Kenya at a UN conference in Paris and was on his way to Nairobi.

Ethiopia

Sara Gebre Michael, the lead cabin attendant, was a caring mother who would be sorely missed, said neighbour Tesfaye Mamo, an artist.

Togo

Kodjo Glato was a professor at the University of Lomé.

Austria

The Austrian foreign ministry spokesman, Peter Guschelbauer, said three doctors in their early 30s were onboard. The men were on their way to Zanzibar, he said, but he could not confirm the purpose of their trip.

Slovakia

• Anton Hrnko, a Slovakian politician, said his
• wife, Blanka,
• daughter, Michala, and
• son, Martin,

were killed in the crash. Hrnko, The Slovak National party MP said he was “in deep grief” over their deaths.

Sweden

Three Swedish nationals are believed to have been on the plane. Tamarind Group, a hospitality company, announced “with immense shock and grief” that its chief executive, Jonathan Seex, was among the victims.

Norway

Karoline Aadland, 28, was a programme finance coordinator for the Norwegian Red Cross.

Russia

Yekaterina Polyakova,

her husband, Alexander Polyakov, and

Sergei Vyalikov,

all tourists

US

The Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services announced that four of its colleagues died in the crash.

The aid group said

• Sara Chalachew,
• Getnet Alemayehu,
• Sintayehu Aymeku and
• Mulusew Alemu

had been travelling to Nairobi for training.

Canada

Six members of one Canadian family were among those killed.

The Dixit-Vaidya family were travelling on a family holiday to Kenya, where

Kosha Vaidya, 37, was born. She was travelling with her husband,

Prerit Dixit, 45,

two daughters, Ashka, 14 and Anushka, 13,

and parents  Pannagesh Vaidya, 71, and Hansini Vaidya, 63.

They lived in Brampton, outside Toronto. 

Danielle Moore, 24, was travelling to the UN environment conference. 

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/seven-britons-were-on-ethiopian-airlines-plane-that-crashed