Both the captain and the first officer of the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 were experienced pilots, an official has said.
The airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said Capitan Yared Mulugeta, an Ethiopian-born Kenyan national, was a senior pilot who had been flying the same plane since November 2007.
His first office Mr Ahmednur Mohamednur had several flight hours under his belt, Mr Tewolde disclosed in his briefing to the press in Addis Ababa after visiting the crash site.
The CEO further disclosed that Boeing 737 Max-8 plane underwent a routine maintenance on February 4, 2019.
The aircraft, with 157 people on board, including eight crew members, was flying from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
It took off at 08:38am Ethiopian time and lost contact at 08:44am, according to the Ethiopia Airlines statement.
The passenger details indicated that there 33 nationalities on the flight, with Kenya having the majority at 32.
Also on the flight were 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians and eight Americans.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent his message of condolences to all those who lost their loved ones.
“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,” twitted the Prime Minister Office of Ethiopia.
The crash was Ethiopian Airlines’ third major accident since the 1996 Comoros hijacking tragedy that culminated in a crash that killed 125 of the 175 passengers.
In 2010, another Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane plunged into the Mediterranean minutes after takeoff from Beirut. All 90 people aboard the plane heading for Addis Ababa died.
-nation.co.ke
