BREAKING NEWS - Sadly, Ethiopian Airlines Plane Crashes On Way To Nairobi Kenya

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on a routine flight to Nairobi, Kenya crashed with 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board the flight.

It was not clear whether there were any survivors in the crash occurred in the early hours of Sunday.

A message of condolence by the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed suggested that there were some deaths.

''The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express its 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'', the message on government's Twitter handle read: An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said the crash occurred at 8:44am local time, 6 minutes after the flight took off from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian Flight

The airline said that there were 33 different nationalities on board the flight. It is not yet clear what caused the accident.

In an earlier statement, the airline said that search and rescue operations were under way near the crash site around the town of Bishoftu, which is 60km (37 miles) south-east of the capital.

''Ethiopian Airlines staff will be sent to the accident scene and will do everything possible to assist the emergency services,'' according to the statement.

Boeing, the company that built the aeroplane, said in a tweet that it was ''closely monitoring the situation''.

Its 737 Max-8 aircraft is relatively new to the skies, having been launched in 2016. It was added to the Ethiopian Airlines fleet in July last year.

Another plane of the same model was involved in a crash five months ago, when a Lion Air flight crashed into the sea near Indonesia with nearly 190 people on board unaccounted for.

Ethiopian Airlines Safety Record:

Ethiopian Airlines flies to many destinations in Africa, making it a popular carrier in a continent where many airlines fly only from their home country to destinations outside Africa.

It has a good reputation for safety, although in 2010 one of the company's aeroplanes crashed in the Mediterranean Sea shortly after leaving Beirut. The incident killed 90 people on board.

The airlines highest fatalities prior to this came in a November 1996 crash during a hijacking on a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

One of the aeroplane's engines stopped when the fuel ran out and although pilots attempted an emergency water landing, they hit a coral reef in the Indian Ocean and 123 of the 175 people on board were killed.

Fire Fighter Vehicle Heading To The Crash Site

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