Eighteen Canadians dead in Ethiopian Airlines crash

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Eighteen Canadians are among the victims of an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed all 157 people thought to be on board Sunday, the airline’s CEO and Kenya’s transport minister said.

The victims also include 32 Kenyans, nine Ethiopians, eight people 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.

The crash happened around Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometres south of Addis Ababa, at 8:44 a.m.

It is not yet clear what caused the new Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane to go down shortly after takeoff from Bole Airport en route to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return, the airline’s CEO said.

Visibility was clear. Air Traffic monitor Flightrader 24 said on Twitter the plane had showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff. The plane was new and had been delivered to the airline in November, records show.

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on the plane that crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa on its way to Kenya’s capital.

The airline says it has contacted the families of the victims, and will soon conduct forensic investigations to identify remains.

Victims begin to be identified

Carleton University’s president confirmed via Twitter on Sunday afternoon that one of the school’s professors had been on the flight.

RELATED: Carleton professor, Edmonton mother and daughter among Ethiopian Airlines dead

Benoit-Antoine Bacon said Pius Adesanmi, Director of African Studies and a professor in the school’s English Department, was one of the deceased, something the school has confirmed.

Some of the passengers on the flight were United Nations staffers, according to a tweet from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. They may have been travelling to the United Nations Environment Assembly, scheduled to start in Nairobi on March 11.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, released a statement saying colleagues had been on the flight.

“It is with great sadness and shock that I have learned today that UNHCR colleagues were among the passengers of the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 which crashed in Ethiopia this morning,” the statement said.

He said colleagues from the United Nations and other partners were also on board.

“We are working to confirm how many UNHCR colleagues were among those on board the tragic flight,” the statement continued. “We are following through our procedures to inform the families and assist them at this heart-breaking and painful time.”

Crash ‘devastating news’: PM Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the news devastating and said his thoughts are with all the victims and everyone who lost friends, family or loved ones.

Robert Oliphant, a Liberal Member of Parliament, is in Addis Ababa on Parliamentary business. He tweeted Sunday morning that others in his delegation may have been on the flight.

“We have a delegation of seven MPs and Senators who landed in Addis Ababa this morning in an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Toronto,” he told NEWS 1130. “We understand that there may have been passengers connecting to the flight to Nairobi but we have not heard if that is the case or not.”

Sunday afternoon, Oliphant confirmed that all the members of his delegation were accounted for, and none had been on the flight headed to Nairobi.

The Canadian government has not yet released the names of citizens who died on the flight.

Grief in Nairobi

At the airport in Nairobi, worried families gathered.

“I came to the airport to receive my brother but I have been told there is a problem,” Agnes Muilu said. “I just pray that he is safe or he was not on it.”

“Why are they taking us round and round, it is all over the news that the plane crashed,” said Edwin Ong’undi, who had been waiting for his sister. “All we are asking for is information to know about their fate.”

Kenya’s transport minister, James Macharia, said an emergency response had been set up for family and friends.

“My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board,” Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

Airlines, Boeing respond

In a statement, Boeing said it was “deeply saddened” to hear of the crash and that a technical team had been sent to the site, ready to provide assistance at the request of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

In October, another Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, killing all 189 people on board the plane Lion Air flight. The cockpit data recorder showed that the jet’s airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights, though Lion Air initially claimed that problems with the aircraft had been fixed.

In Canada, both WestJet and Air Canada use the aircraft — Air Canada says they have performed safely and reliably, and WestJet says it will not speculate on the cause of the incident.

Air Canada has operated the aircraft since 2017, and have 24 in their fleet. In a statement, the airline told NEWS 1130 that the planes have “performed excellently from a safety, reliability and customer satisfaction perspective.”

WestJet has 13 operational 737 MAX 8 in their fleet.

Ethiopian Airlines has big dreams

The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa, calls itself Africa’s largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent.

The airline later published a photo that appeared to show its CEO standing in the wreckage. Little of the plane could be seen in the freshly churned earth, under a blue sky.

“Tewolde Gebremariam, who is at the accident scene now, regrets to confirm that there are no survivors,” the post on social media said. “He expresses his profound sympathy and condolences to the families and loved ones of passengers and crew who lost their lives in this tragic accident.”

The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was in 2010, when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Beirut killing all 90 people on board.

Sunday’s 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.

Ethiopian Airlines has been expanding assertively, recently opening a route to Moscow and in January inaugurating a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity.

Speaking at the inauguration, the prime minister challenged the airline to build a new “Airport City” terminal in Bishoftu — where Sunday’s crash occurred.

The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route links East Africa’s two largest economic powers and is popular with tourists making their way to safari and other destinations. Sunburned travellers and tour groups crowd the Addis Ababa airport’s waiting areas, along with businessmen from China and elsewhere.

With files from the Associated Press and the Canadian Press.