ROUGH CUT.

NO REPORTER NARRATION.

The nationalities and genders of those on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi which crashed early on Sunday (March 10) are still unknown, Kenyan Transport Minister James Macharia told a news conference in Nairobui on Sunday (March 10).

"At this point I cannot tell you their nationalities.

We don't have the details about what countries they came from.

We don't have information about the gender of those passengers," he said.

The flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38 am local time, before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44 am.

Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometers southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said, adding that the plane was a Boeing 737-800 MAX, registration number ET-AVJ.