Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (CNN) All 157 people aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed soon after taking off Sunday morning from Addis Ababa have been killed, the airline said Sunday.
The plane, en route to Nairobi, Kenya, lost contact at 8:44 a.m. local time, six minutes after taking off from Bole International Airport in the Ethiopian capital.
Flight ET302 went down near Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa. The victims were of 35 different nationalities, an airline spokesman told CNN.
Thirty-two Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Americans, eight Italians and eight Chinese nationals were among the passengers. Seven French and seven UK nationals were also on board, the spokesman said.
Nineteen United Nations staff members were among those killed, according to a UN statement. The victims worked for the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees, the International Telecommunications Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Organization for Migration in SouthSudan, World Bank and UN Assistance Mission in Somalia, and the UN Office in Nairobi.
Though it’s unclear why UN employees were on the plane, the UN Environment Assembly is scheduled to begin Monday in Nairobi.
“My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims — including our own UN staff — who perished in this tragedy,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
The US National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to support the Ethiopian Accident Investigations Bureau’s investigation, with assistance from technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and General Electric.
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