News regarding the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302/10 that crashed near Bishoftu town, Ethiopia continue to unfold.
Before the Boeing 737 airplane took off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, it had arrived from Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ethiopian authorities stated that upon landing, the pilot had not made any remarks or concerns about the aircraft.
Three hours later it was scheduled to take off from the Bole en route to JKIA, Nairobi.
FlightRadar24, a Swedish website that tracks, origins and destinations, flight numbers, aircraft types, positions, altitudes, headings and speeds indicated that the plane's momentum was unstable two minutes into the flight.
The instability persisted for the next three minutes and the plane maintained an altitude of 7,500 feet, with a speed of 600 knots (about 1,100km/h) before the tracking site lost its position.
It is reported that Captain Yared Getachew informed the Ethiopian radar control about the difficulties and was cleared to turn back and land at Bole.
Speaking during a press briefing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebre-Mariam indicated that the captain was a senior pilot and was equally experienced in flying the same plane since 2018 after joining the airline in 2010.
The Boeing 737 Max 800 aircraft, registration ET-AVJ and serial number 62450, ran its first flight for Ethiopian Airlines in October 2018.
Authorities indicated that among those killed in the crash were Ethiopians (9) , Canadians (18), Chinese (8), Americans (8), Italians (8), Indians (4), French (7), British (7), Dutch (5), Russian (3), Moroccan (2), Israeli (2), Belgian (1), Ugandan (1), Yemeni (1), Sudanese (1), Togolese (1), Mozambican (1), Norwegian (1) and Egyptians (6) while four passengers held UN passports.