Spokesman: No bodies, only small remains recovered from Ethiopia Airlines crash site

A Saudi man who's brother died in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, touches a debris after a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the crash. No bodies will be recovered from the site because only fragmented remains survived the impact. REUTERS

No bodies will be recovered from the site where Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed, the airline's spokesman said on Wednesday, because only fragmented remains survived the impact.

"There were no bodies," he told Reuters.

Sunday's still unexplained crash, just after take-off from Addis Ababa, killed all 157 people on board.

The plane took off at 8:38 a.m. (0538 GMT) on March 10 and lost contact with the control tower at 8:44 a.m. It crashed about 50km (30 miles) southeast of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The plane’s body shattered into many pieces and was severely burnt, a Reuters reporter at the scene of the crash said. Clothing and personal effects were scattered widely over the field where the plane came down.

“It tried to climb but it failed and went down nose first,” Tamirat Abera, 25, said. “There was fire and white smoke.”

The cause of the crash is still unknown, but investigators found the jet’s black box recorders on March 11. Under international rules, responsibility for leading the investigation lies with Ethiopia, but the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will also participate because the plane was designed and built in the United States.

The MAX 8 is an updated version of Boeing’s best-selling 737 passenger aircraft, considered one of the industry’s most reliable. It is the same model that crashed into the Java Sea on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight.

Officials and analysts said it was too early to tell if there was any connection between the two incidents. A Reuter’s analysis shows that both planes suddenly lost altitude in the first three minutes after takeoff.

The world's biggest planemaker, which has seen billions of dollars wiped off its market value, said it retained “full confidence” in the 737 MAX and had safety as its priority.

A rescue team carries bodies in bags at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines near Bishoftu.

Boeing confirmed that it will soon roll out a “flight control software enhancement” that it had been developing for several months. The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority said it would also mandate changes to flight crew manuals and training. But authorities in China, Singapore and Australia, among others, said they were grounding 737 MAX 8 jets as a precaution.

But Singapore and Australia's aviation authorities — following China, Indonesia and others — said temporary suspension of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in and out of their airports was necessary during a safety review.

Late on Tuesday March 12, major European nations Britain, Germany and France joined the wave of groundings of the aircraft.