ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) Eyewitnesses said there was a loud explosion and smoke trailing behind the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on Sunday (March 10), killing all 157 people onboard.

One man, Gadisa Benti, said the plane was hovering as fire came from its tail and the pilot tried to lift the nose of the plane before it came down.

Sunday's flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8:38 a.m.

(0538 GMT), before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8:44 a.m.

Passengers from 33 countries were aboard the Boeing 737 MAX 8.