Ethiopian flight crash victims were from at least 35 nations

Victims of Sunday’s Ethiopian airlines crash were from at least 35 nations, according to Kenya’s Transport Minister.

Kenya had 32 nationals aboard flight ET 302 which crashed Sunday morning en route to Nairobi.

Kenya’s Transport Minister, James Macharia addressed a news conference Sunday.

“We can now confirm that there were at least 35 nationalities, and I’m saying at least because as of now two are unknown. Among the most affected, as you may expect, is Kenya which had about 32 passengers on board out of the 149 passengers. Other nationalities involved, with number of passengers in the flight, were Canada with 18, China with eight, Netherlands with five, Egypt with six, Ethiopia with nine, France and the UK with seven each, India with four, Italy with eight. Then we have Slovakia with four, the U.S.A with eight. The other nationalities had one or two passengers on board”, he said.

The 737 passenger jet to Nairobi killed 149 passengers and eight crew, the airline said.

Flight ET 302, registration number ET-AVJ, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 38.5 miles southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, it added.

The flight left Bole International airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38 a.m. local time, before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44 a.m.