ADDIS ABABA, March 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Empty coffins representing the Ethiopian victims of last week’s Ethiopia Airlines plane crash have been buried in the capital, Addis Ababa.
None of the bodies has yet been formally identified because of the impact when the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after it took off for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.
Some relatives were overcome with grief, while others threw themselves on the red coffins draped with the Ethiopian flag at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.
Some family members have been given charred earth from the crash site to help remember their loved ones.
Families have been told it could take up to six months to identify the remains.
Temporary death certificates were issued ahead of Sunday’s funeral service.
There was also a ceremony for Ethiopian Airlines staff at the city’s Bole International Airport to pay their respects to the eight crew on board flight 302 to Nairobi.
In Nairobi, relatives of some of the 36 Kenyan victims, as well as diplomats from some of the more than 30 countries whose citizens died in the crash, gathered to pay their respects at an Ethiopian Orthodox church in the city.
Kenya’s Transport Minister, James Macharia told worshippers that bereaved families had taken bags of earth from the crash site as a memory of their loved ones.
“The Ethiopian government allowed them to take samples of the earth where they lost their loved ones and bring that soil home,” he said.
Relatives of the passengers killed in the incident are being encouraged to provide DNA samples either in Addis Ababa or at any overseas offices of Ethiopian Airlines.
The Ethiopian investigation into the crash is being assisted by teams from around the world, including the US and France. — NNN-AGENCIES
