Ethiopian Airlines crash: Gov’t to fly families to Addis for body identification

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia says the government will fly to Ethiopia the next of kin of victims who died on Sunday in a plane crash in Addis Ababa, to help in the process of identifying the bodies.

In a press briefing on Monday, CS Macharia said 25 out of the 32 affected families had already been contacted with the process to reach the rest still underway.

According to CS Macharia, the transportation exercise will be done in collaboration between the Ethiopian and Kenyan Governments as well as Kenya Airways and Ethiopian airlines.

Ethiopian airlines has reportedly offered to fly back home bodies of the victims once the verification process is done.

Meanwhile, all Ethiopian flights involving Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets have been grounded as an “extra safety precaution” pending investigations into the cause of the Sunday crash, which involved the same plane model.

“Following the tragic accident of ET 302/10 March 737-8 MAX (ET-AVJ), Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday March 10,2019 until further notice,” said the airline in a statement issued Monday.

This was the second time in less than six months that a new Boeing aircraft crashed just minutes into a flight.

A Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight went down over the Java Sea in late October, killing all 189 people on board.

Meanwhile, a multi-agency team including officials from the Kenya Airports Authority, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and other aviation experts are meeting in Ethiopia over the plane crash.