Hongkonger 'among Dead In Ethiopia Plane Crash'

One Hong Kong citizen and seven mainland Chinese are among 157 people killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia on Sunday, state media is reporting.

CCTV reported the Chinese passengers were on board the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737, which crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Abbaba en route for Nairobi.

Many of those travelling are likely to have been attending the United Nations Environment Assembly, which is set to begin on Monday in Kenya's capital. There were 149 passengers and eight crew on board the jet, Ethiopian Airlines said.

"The group CEO who is at the accident scene right now regrets to confirm that there are no survivors," the company said in a statement confirming the death toll.

The single-aisle Boeing 737 Max is one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger jets. But Boeing has come under fire for possible glitches with the plane, which entered service in 2017.

An Indonesian Lion Air 737 Max crashed into the Java Sea in October about 13 minutes after leaving Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

After investigators said that aircraft had problems with its airspeed indicator and angle of attack (AoA) sensors, Boeing issued a special bulletin telling operators what to do when they face the same situation.

People with passports from 32 countries and the United Nations were on the Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 that crashed with 157 on board Sunday, Ethiopian Airlines said.

Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by Canada with 18, Ethiopia with nine, then Italy, China, and the United States with eight each, Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters in Addis Ababa.

Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, the Netherlands five, and India four. Four were UN passport-holders. (RTHK/AFP/AP)

______________________________