UN tragedy: 19 personnel among 157 killed in Ethiopian Airlines crash
- Authorities said all 157 people on board were killed when the Boeing 737 crashed soon after take-off from Addis Ababa on a flight to Nairobi,
- Eight Chinese were killed, including one from Hong Kong
The World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency and the Food and Agriculture Organisation were among UN agencies reporting personnel losses.
The casualty list also included a professor, the CEO of a restaurant company and a Kenyan soccer official.
CCTV said eight Chinese were killed, including one from Hong Kong, based on a list provided by China’s embassy in Kenya.
The network named the Hong Kong resident as Tsang Ching-ngai, who it said worked for the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
China grounds nation’s 737 Max 8 jets after Ethiopian Airlines’ crash
Two sources told the Post that it was Victor Tsang Shing-ngai. A profile on the UNEP website names a Victor Tsang, a programme officer for the “Gender & Safeguards Unit”.
Two of the mainland Chinese CCTV identified worked for state-owned companies – Zhou Yuan, from China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, and Jin Yetao of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply saddened at the tragic loss of lives”.
“He conveys his heartfelt sympathies and solidarity to the victims’ families and loved ones, including those of United Nations staff members, as well as sincere condolences to the government and people of Ethiopia,” the statement said.
“The United Nations is in contact with the Ethiopian authorities and working closely with them to establish the details of United Nations personnel who lost their lives in this tragedy.
French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are among those expected to attend the UN Environment Assembly set to begin Monday, along with more than 4,700 heads of state, ministers and executives.
Topics include sustainable consumption and production, plastic pollution, food waste and climate change.
Outcomes from the meeting are to set the global environmental agenda and boost chances of success in the Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda.
The passenger list includes 32 Kenyans and 18 Canadians, the largest two groups by nationality.
Flight ET 302 crashed into a field 60km (37 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa on what the airline’s CEO Tewolde GebreMariam labelled a “very sad and tragic day”.
An eyewitness said the plane came down in flames.
“The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion,” Tegegn Dechasa recounted at the site, littered with passenger belongings, human remains, and plane parts around a massive crater at the point of impact.
“The plane was in flames in its rear side soon before the crash. The plane was swerving erratically before the crash.”
The Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed was brand new, delivered to state-owned Ethiopian Airways on November 15, said the carrier, Africa’s largest.
A spokesman on Monday said Ethiopian Airlines had grounded all its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as a safety precaution.
Lion Air crash was so violent it destroyed black box
The plane is the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
Ethiopian Airlines said the plane had taken off at 8:38am from Bole International Airport and “lost contact” six minutes later.
It came down near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu.
The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger flight was in 2010, when a plane went down minutes after take-off from Beirut, killing all 90 people on board.
African air travel, long troubled and chaotic, has improved in recent years, with the International Air Transport Association in November noting “two years free of any fatalities on any aircraft type”.
Ethiopian officials declared Monday a national day of mourning.
Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse
