157 people on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa have been killed, the airline said on Sunday morning.
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.
The aircraft, flight number ET302, went down near Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa. An airline spokesperson told CNN the victims were of 35 different nationalities.
The spokesperson said 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Americans, eight Italians and seven UK nationals were among the passengers.
Eight Chinese passengers were also on board, said Li Liang, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy to Ethiopia.
A family member of a victim of the crash awaits news at Addis Ababa airport.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, told reporters at a press conference that the pilot had reported technical difficulties and asked for clearance to return to Addis Ababa.
He was given clearance to turn back, according to GebreMariam, citing the Air Traffic Controllers record.
The pilot was a senior Ethiopian Airlines pilot who had flown more than 8,000 hours. He had an "excellent flying record," according to the CEO.
The CEO visited the crash site on Sunday. He said the plane "is now right inside the ground" and it was not possible to identify whether it was an emergency landing or a crash. He said there was still smoke at the site when he visited.
"As it is a fresh incident, we have not been able to determine the cause. As I said, it is a brand new airplane with no technical remarks, flown by a senior pilot and there is no cause that we can attribute at this time."
"The routine maintenance check didn't reveal any problems," GebreMariam added.
Asked about the possibility of terrorism or sabotage: "At this stage we cannot rule out anything."
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the same type of plane as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed soon after takeoff from Jakarta in 2018 -- killing 189 people.
"They of course are the same [model of 737 MAX 8] planes," but GebreMariam said only an investigation could make any conclusions.
The airline said in an earlier statement that staff would "be sent to the accident scene and will do everything possible to assist the emergency services."
It added that a passenger information center and hotline "will be available shortly for family or friends of those who may have been on flight."
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