As at the time of filing this report, it was not clear if the deceased was a man or a woman, but our source declared that a Nigerian was onboard.
Information gathered by our correspondent revealed that a Nigerian was among the 157 passengers and crewmembers that crashed early today in Addis-Ababa, aboard Ethiopian Airlines.
The yet to be identified Nigerian, it was gathered was among four passengers with a United Nations (UN) international passengers.
As at the time of filing this report, it was not clear if the deceased was a man or a woman, but our source declared that a Nigerian was onboard.
Apart from the Nigerian, 32 Kenyans; males and females were also onboard the crashed Boeing 737-800 MAX aircraft, which was launched about a year ago.
The crashed plane was delivered to Ethiopian Airline from the factory by Boeing Aircraft Company in mid-November 2018 and it was the second aircraft brand that would crash in the past five months.
The first being the Lion Jet from Indonesia, which crashed in into a sea in Jakarta few minutes after takeoff.
The flight 610 operated by Boeing 737 MAX passenger plane with 189 people on board crashed into the sea on October 29, 2018.
The flight was a scheduled domestic flight operated by the Indonesian airline Lion Air from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta to Depati Amir Airport in Pangkal Pinang.
On 29 October 2018, the brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 operating the route crashed into the Java Sea 12 minutes after takeoff.
All 189 passengers and crew were killed in the accident. It became the second deadliest airplane accident in Indonesia, only behind Garuda Indonesia Flight 152.
According to reports, this was the first major accident involving the 737 MAX and the deadliest involving a 737 aircraft surpassing Air India Express Flight 812 in 2010. It is also the worst accident for Lion Air in its 18-year history, surpassing the previous crash in Surakarta that killed 25.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 with the registration number: ET- AVJ, disappeared from the radar barely six minutes after take-off.
Other nationals onboard the plane according to a manifest supplied by Ethiopian Airlines were Canadians; 18, Ethiopian; nine, Chinese; eight, Italians; eight, United States; eight, British; seven, French; seven, Egyptians; six, Dutch; five, UN international passports; four and additional four Indians.
Others were three Russians, two Moroccans, two Israelis, one Belgian, one Ugandan, one Yemen, one Sudanese, one Togolese, one Mozambican and one Norwegian.
Ethiopia Airlines Group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, who arrived the site of the crash few hours after the accident at Bishoftu, 62 kilometres southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, confirmed there were no survivors and expressed his profound sympathy and condolences to the families and loved ones of passengers and crew who lost lives in the tragic incident.
The flight had 149 passengers; eight crew on board and the passengers have been traced to about 35 countries.
Gebremariam said pilots reported difficulties and asked for permission to turn back to Addis Ababa, but indications show that the flight crew could not make the air return, hence the crash.
The flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8. 38am (about 10.38 am Nigerian time), before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44am.