An Ethiopian Airlines plane has gone down with 149 passengers and 8 crew onboard as reported.
The plane is believed to have crashed six minutes after take off, according to local reports.
The Ethiopian prime minister’s official Twitter account has expressed condolences to families of those lost.
The PM’s office wrote on Twitter: “The office of the PM, on behalf of government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s deepest condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this
morning.”
A spokesperson for Ethiopian Airlines confirmed that the plane crashed while heading from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa to Nairobi. It is not clear yet where exactly the crash occurred.
The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines calls itself Africa’s largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent.