Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed shortly after departing Bole Airport in Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members. This incident represents the fifth known fatal crash involving aircraft departing from the airport since 1947.
The first recorded departure-related crash occurred on March 20, 1947, when a U.S. Air Force plane crashed, killing six people. A second major incident in 1996 involved a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-200 that crashed in the Comoros, killing 125 of 175 aboard. A third fatal crash happened in 2010 when flight 409 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, claiming 90 lives.
Ethiopian Airlines, established in 1945, has experienced 64 accidents since 1965, including 482 fatalities, with 349 related to departures. The 2019 crash is the second in six months involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8 model, following a Lion Air disaster in October 2018 that killed 189 people. The aircraft variant, first delivered to Malindo Air in May 2017, has been grounded by multiple countries amid safety concerns.
Global aviation data shows 500 deaths from passenger airline crashes in 2018, though fatal incidents remain rare. The highest fatalities since 2013 occurred in 2014 with 911 deaths, while 2019 recorded 23 accidents involving 12+ passengers, resulting in 198 casualties.
