Ethiopian Airlines: Black box recovered from crash site by investigators

The black box of recorded data from the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed on Sunday has been recovered.

The passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers and crew members on board.

An anonymous airline official said that the black box – containing a digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – was partially damaged. He said: “We will see what we can retrieve from it.”

Investigators are attempting to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred in clear weather outside Addis Ababa shortly before 9am local time.

Ethiopian Airlines said the plane’s senior pilot issued a distress call and was told to return, but all contact was lost shortly afterwards. The plane ploughed into the ground six minutes after takeoff.

Airline spokesperson Asrat Begashaw said searching and digging to uncover bodies and aircraft parts will continue with the help of forensic experts from Israel.

Ethiopian Airlines also announced that it has grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as “an extra safety precaution”.

Aviation authorities in both Indonesia and China also ordered airlines to temporarily ground their Max 8s. Caribbean carrier Cayman Airways said it was temporarily grounding the two it operates.

Ethiopian authorities are leading the investigation into the crash, but are assisted by specialists from other countries. “These kinds of things take time,” Kenya’s transport minister, James Macharia, told reporters.

People from 35 countries died in the Sunday morning crash. Kenya lost 32 people, more than any other country. The UK, US, Canada, Ethiopia, China, Italy, France, Egypt, Germany, India and Slovakia all lost four or more citizens.

Three Britons and one Irish citizen who died in the crash have been identified so far.

Leaders of the United Nations, the UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme announced that colleagues had been on the plane. The UN migration agency estimated that 19 UN-affiliated employees were killed.

Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and some had been on their way to a large UN environmental conference set to begin on Monday in Nairobi. The UN flag at the event flew at half-mast.

Michael Moller, director-general of the UN headquarters in Geneva, said: “It is one of the biggest catastrophes we have had in years.”

The crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet of the same Boeing model in Indonesian seas last year. Nearly 200 died in that incident.

The Ethiopian plane was delivered to the airline in November. The jet’s last maintenance was on 4 February, and it had flown just 1,200 hours.

A Boeing spokesperson told The Independent: “Safety is our number one priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved.

“The investigation is in its early stages, but at this point, based on the information available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators.”

Additional reporting by agencies