Breaking:Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet crashes with more than 150 aboard

Ethiopian Airlines says it believes 149 passengers and eight crew members were on board Flight ET 302 that crashed six minutes after taking off from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on a flight to Nairobi.

A statement from the airline on Sunday morning said the Boeing 737-800 MAX, registration number ET-AVJ, crashed around Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 62km south of the capital, shortly after taking off at 8.38am local time, losing contact at 8.44am.

The airline statement said search and rescue operations were in progress.

“We have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties,” the statement said.

However, the Ethiopian prime minister’s office in a separate, earlier statement offered condolences to families.

The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s 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.

— Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) March 10, 2019

There have been no immediate details on what caused the crash.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is “urgently” trying to find out if any Australians were on board.

“The Australian Embassy in Addis Ababa is making urgent inquiries to determine whether any Australians were on board Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302,” a DFAT spokesman said.

“At this time, no advice on the nationalities of those on board has been released.”View image on Twitter

Accident Bulletin no. 1
Issued on march 10, 2019 at 11:00am
Ethiopian Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available. Updated information will also be on Ethiopian Airlines website at https://t.co/Je7pXoKxHh pic.twitter.com/07wKZHPVPl

— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019

The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines calls itself Africa’s largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent.

The crash comes as the country’s reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has vowed to open up the airline and other sectors to foreign investment in a major transformation of the state- centred economy. It said previously that it expected to carry 10.6 million passengers last year.

In 2010 one of the company’s planes crashed in the Mediterranean Sea shortly after leaving Beirut, killing 90 people on board.