UPDATE - All 157 on board crashed Ethiopian plane dead: State TV

UPDATES WITH CASUALTIES

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - All 149 passengers and eight crew on board crashed Ethiopian Airlines are dead, Ethiopia’s state broadcaster on Saturday said.

In an earlier statement issued by the airline, Boeing 737 plane bound for Kenya was on a routine flight from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa when it crashed on Sunday morning near the central town of Bushoftu, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the capital.

The communication with the flight ET-302 was lost six minutes after it took off, the statement said.

According to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, the people on board the crashed plane were of 32 different nationalities.

Most of the passengers are assumed to be Kenyans and relatives of the passengers flocked Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital Nairobi to get information about their loved ones.

Fighting tears, Mary Atieno, a Nigerian woman, told Anadolu Agency: "I was expecting my husband in Nairobi. I have heard that everyone has died. I just want his body for burial, I even have no words."

* Magdalene Mukami in Nairobi contributed to this story.