According to the airline, personal belongings of those who died in the crash will be processed within two months and handed over to relatives after verification.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 17 – Relatives of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash will wait for at least six months for the outcome of DNA results after which they will get remains of their loved ones.
In an advisory issued to them at the weekend, the airline asked relatives to submit DNA samples at Skylight hotel in Addis Ababa, where families that lost their loved ones had been booked.
“DNA sample can be given at Skylight hotel in Addis Ababa or at a point of origin through Ethiopian Airlines International Offices closers to you location,” the airline told relatives in the briefing note.
The carrier has so far flown at least sixty relatives to Ethiopia, Kenya having suffered the greatest fatalities – 32 – out of the 157 people on board the plane who perished.
According to the airline, personal belongings of those who died in the crash will be processed within two months and handed over to relatives after verification.
The airline has already commenced the process of processing death certificates for the 157 people who died when ET 302 flight crashed in Bishoftu, southeast of the capital, six minutes after takeoff from Bole International Airport.
“Death certificates will be issued in the next two weeks and will be dispatched to immediate next of kin addresses,” the airline said in a briefing note to relatives.
Family members wishing to visit the crash site will be facilitated by the airline with incidental payments to cover for expenses incurred set to be processed through bank transfers.
The airline assured families wishing to carry soil samples from the crash sites of requisite letters to facilitate custom clearance by immigration officials.
The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 destined to Nairobi reignited safety concerns raised over the twin-engine Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, dozens of airlines including Ethiopian resorting to grounding their fleets out of caption.
The aircraft manufacturer on Wednesday bowed to pressure and suspended operations of the aircraft following a recommendation by the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Boeing said the move was out of “abundance of caution” while affirming its “full confidence” in the safety of the 737 Max 8.
“On behalf of the entire Boeing team, we extend our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives in these two tragic accidents,” said Dennis Muilenburg, president, CEO, and Chairman of Boeing.
“We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution. Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes; and it always will be. There is no greater priority for our company and our industry. We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again.”
The crash in Addis involving Boeing’s 737 Max 8 was the second most deadliest in six months, after a Lion Air flight of the same model, departing from Jakarta, Indonesia in October 2018 killed all 189 passengers on board when it crashed into Java sea just 13 minutes after takeoff.
The Sunday crash in Bishoftu raised eyebrows on the safety and familiarity of a new anti-stalling mechanism designed to prevent stalling by counter-checking the angle-of-attack of the plane using sensors.
Questions have been raised on whether pilots have been adequately trained to override the autopilot function popularly referred to as Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).
The 737 Max 8 was first placed into commercial service in May 2017 by a Malaysian airline, Malindo Air, the twin-engine plane rising in popularity due to its fuel saving and long-range capability.
In Africa, the plane has been supplied to Ethiopian Airlines and Mauritania Airlines.
Boeing had by January received 5,011 orders for the plane with plans for the launch of a Max 10 model having been set for 2020.
In a statement following the crash, the airplane manufacturer had said it had dispatched a technical team to assist with investigations into the crash of ET302.
“A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and US National Transportation Safety Board,” a statement released on Sunday stated.
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