Ethiopian plane smoked and shuddered before deadly plunge, say witnesses

Published Mar 11, 2019

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GARA-BOKKA - The Ethiopian

Airlines plane that crashed killing 157 people was making a

strange rattling noise and trailed smoke and debris as it

swerved above a field of panicked cows before hitting earth,

according to witnesses.

Flight 302 took off from the Ethiopian capital on Sunday

morning bound for Nairobi with passengers from more than 30

countries. All on board the Boeing 737 MAX 8 died.

The pilot had requested permission to return, saying he was

having problems - but it was too late.

Half a dozen witnesses interviewed by Reuters in the

farmland where the plane came down reported smoke billowing out

behind, while four of them also described a loud sound.

"It was a loud rattling sound. Like straining and shaking

metal," said Turn Buzuna, a 26-year-old housewife and farmer who

lives about 300 meters (328 yards) from the crash site.

"Everyone says they have never heard that kind of sound from

a plane and they are under a flight path," she added.

Malka Galato, 47, a barley and wheat farmer whose field the

plane crashed in, also described smoke and sparks from the back.

"The plane was very close to the ground and it made a turn...

Cows that were grazing in the fields ran in panic," he said.

Tamirat Abera, 25, was walking past the field at the time.

He said the plane turned sharply, trailing white smoke and items

like clothes and papers, then crashed about 300 meters away.

"It tried to climb but it failed and went down nose first,"

he said. "There was fire and white smoke which then turned

black."

CHILDREN'S BOOKS, PERFUME AT CRASH

As the plane had only just taken off, it was loaded with

fuel.

At the site, Red Cross workers in masks sifted gently

through victims' belongings. Children's books - Dr Seuss's "Oh

The Thinks You Can Think" and "Anne of Green Gables" - lay near

a French-English dictionary burnt along one edge.

A woman's brown handbag, the bottom burnt, lay open next to

an empty bottle of perfume.

The aircraft was broken into small pieces, the largest among

them a wheel and a dented engine. The debris was spread over

land roughly the size of two football fields.

"When it was hovering, fire was following its tail, then it

tried to lift its nose," said another witness, Gadisa Benti.

"When it passed over our house, the nose pointed down and the

tail raised up. It went straight to the ground with its nose, it

then exploded."

Local resident Nigusu Tesema helped gather victims'

scattered identity papers to hand to police.

"We are shocked and saddened," he said.

Reuters

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