An Ethiopian Airlines flight with 157 people thought to be on board crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday morning from Ethiopia’s capital while headed to Nairobi, the airline said.
The airline later confirmed that two Israeli passengers were on board the aircraft that went down.
There were no immediate details on what caused the crash of the Boeing 737-8 MAX plane, which was new and had been delivered to the airline in November.
Ethiopia’s state broadcaster EBC said all passengers were dead, adding that they included 33 nationalities.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry had said earlier it was checking whether Israeli passengers were aboard and monitoring the situation.
The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route is often used by Israelis, as there are no direct flights between Israel and Kenya. Channel 13 reported that the plane that crashed had been in Israel as recently as last Wednesday.
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.
