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.