Meet the passenger who missed boarding crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane

Addis Ababa : Normally, people feel disappointed on missing a flight by a couple of minutes, but here is this guy who is thanking all his lucky stars for missing the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed moments after it took off with no survivors left.

He recalls the moment he found out about the plane crash.

My flight was from Dubai to Addis Ababa and then from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, but because of the delay from Dubai, I missed the fast flight (to Nairobi). So, when I reached Addis Ababa they told me to take the second flight, which is at 11 o'clock and I said it's fine. Six minutes after takeoff it crashed.

"Everyone was asking the cabin crew what was happening but no one was saying anything. They were just going up and down until one passenger saw on his mobile that the first plane which had just flew, like six minutes after it flew, it just crashed."

Among the 157 ill-fated passengers travelling on Ethiopian Airlines, four were from India, said airlines CEO. The plane crashed 6 minutes after it took off from the airport.

Adding more to the information about passengers on the plane, the CEO said, 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. Belgium, Indonesia, Somalia, Norway, Serbia, Togo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen each had one citizen onboard.

Flight ET 302 crashed had crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometres southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said.