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A Slovakian MP has confirmed that his wife and two children were killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash yesterday morning.
All 157 people on board Flight ET302 were killed as the airplane came down six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.
According to reports, seven of the passengers were British nationals, although this is yet to be confirmed by the Foreign Office.
Anton Hrnko, the deputy leader of the Slovak National Party, announced via Facebook today that his wife and children had died in the tragedy.
He wrote in Slovak: "With deep sadness I announce that my dear wife Blanka, son Martin and daughter Michal died during the air disaster in Addis Ababa today in the morning hours.
"Those who knew them, give them a quiet memory."
Besides serving as a senior official within the Slovak National Party, Mr Hrnko is also a member of the National Council, the country's 150-member parliament.
He has also held roles in the Slovakian ministry of defence and the parliament's foreign committee.
According to Slovakian media reports, his son, Martin Hrnko, worked as a travel agent.
Within an hour of Mr Hrnko's announcement, almost 3,000 Facebook users had posted comments expressing their sympathies, with thousands writing "Úprimnú sústras?", meaning "My condolences".
There were reportedly 35 nationalities on board the doomed flight today, with the most, 32, being Kenyans.
The plane was a Boeing 737 800 Max - the same model as the Lion Air plane crash tragedy in Indonesia which killed 189 people in October last year.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said the captain of the crashed plane told controllers at Bole airport he was having difficulty and wanted to return, and that he had been given clearance.
He said smoke was still emanating from the site of the crash when he visited it this morning.
The flight "had unstable vertical speed" shortly after take off, Swedish flight-tracking website flightradar24 said.
Max Kingsley-Jones, group editor of online news site Flight Global, said Ethiopian Airlines has a "great reputation" in the aviation world.
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