UPDATE: Rescue teams combing through the wreckage on Monday of the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft that crashed in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, have found the plane’s black box.
Retrieval efforts have been complicated at the crash site due to the area’s inaccessibility and the impact with which the plane hit the ground, scattering debris across a large area.
Locating the plane’s black box will help investigators understand what may have caused the crash, with early indicators showing that the plane lost contact with the control tower six minutes after take-off.
The impact of the crash has created a 10-meter deep pit that is 50 meters in diameter, and wreckage strewn all over the area.
The Boeing 737-800 MAX, ET302 aircraft crashed on Sunday morning, just minutes after take-off from the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members on board.
The plane was headed to Nairobi, Kenya.
A day of national mourning has been declared in Ethiopia on Monday.
Officials from the Ethiopian Airlines meanwhile have called on the China Railway Seventh Group Co. Ltd., who are working on a project nearby, to help with the search, as the area is difficult to access.
The China Railway Seventh Group is a subsidiary of the construction conglomerate, China Railway Group Limited.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said that information received from technical experts investigating the crash will be communicated promptly to the public.
Ethiopian Airlines meanwhile has suspended the use of all Boeing 737-800 MAX in its fleet as a precautionary measure.
