The Department of Foreign Affairs said that they are checking if there were any Filipino passengers in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed over 150 people on board.
Through a statement, DFA said that it has already instructed its posts in Nairobi and Cairo to determine if there were Filipinos in the airplane.
As of press time, there are still no further updates from the foreign affairs department.
The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines earlier listed more than 30 nationalities of passengers who were killed in the plane, including 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Italians, eight Chinese citizens, eight Americans, seven British citizens, seven French citizens, six Egyptians, five Dutch citizens, four Indians, four people from Slovakia, three Austrians, three Swedes, three Russians, two Moroccans, two Spaniards, two Poles and two Israelis.
Reportedly, there was also one citizen from each of the following countries: Belgium, Indonesia, Somalia, Norway, Serbia, Togo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen.
According to the airlines’ bulletin, the Boeing 737 plane, carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members, was on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi when it crashed at around 8:44am Sunday.
The plane took off from Addis Ababa at 8:38am local time.
Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide, quoted the Ethiopian Airlines CEO to have said, “There were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet.”
The Ethiopian plane was new, having been delivered to the airline in November.
Image credits: Associated Press
