Ethiopian Airlines Crash: Two Nigerian Professors among casualties

Two Nigerian Professors were among the 157 people that died on Sunday in an Ethiopian Airlines jet crash.

The passenger jet en route Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed about six minutes after take-off, killing all passengers and eight crew members on board.

The Nigerian victims were identified as a popular Nigerian-born Canadian professor and writer, Pius Adesanmi, and Ambassador Abiodun Bashua, a former Joint Special Representative for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, Sudan.

While Prof. Abiodun Bashua traveled with his Nigerian passport, Professor Pius Adesanmi traveled with his Canadian passport.

The duo were heading to Nairobi, Kenya, to attend a CIDO/ECOSOCC meeting.

Bashua was a respected retired Nigerian diplomat with many years with the UN, while Adesanmi was a Nigerian-Canadian professor of English at the Carleton University, Canada.

Also on board the flight were 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Chinese, eight Italians, eight Americans, and seven people each from France and United Kingdom.

There were also six Egyptians, five Germans, four people each from Slovakia and India, three people each from Austria, Russia, Sweden, and two people each from Spain, Israel, Morrocco and Poland.

The aircraft, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, took off at 08:38am (05:38 GMT) and lost contact with air traffic controllers, 6 minutes later and crashed near Bishoftu.

Search and rescue operations began soon after, where it was discovered that there were no survivors, a statement by the airline said.