This is the Facebook post that Professor Pius Adesanmi wrote before boarding the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302.
The airline’s flight ET 302, on its way to Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after takeoff, ploughing into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, 40 miles south-east of the Ethiopian capital, killing all the 157 people on board.
Adesanmi, an academic and former CNN commentator, quoted a poignant bible verse.
“If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me,” the verse, identified in the post as Psalm 139:9-10, reads.
Adesanmi is smiling as he takes what appears to be a selfie in the airport. Out of shot, he holds his Canadian passport and boarding pass.
Writing for CNN in 2014, he explained how social media is allowing Africans both at home and in the diaspora to shape opinion about the story of their continent.
Black box recovered from scene, airline confirms
The black box from the flight has been found, Ethiopian Airlines has confirmed.
The black box — or digital flight data recorder — will provide the first clues as to what caused the Ethiopian Airlines plane to crash just six minutes after takeoff.
The flight’s cockpit voice recorder has also been recovered, the airline said.
Airline employee: “It feels like we’ve lost family”
Workers collect wreckage from the downed plane.
Workers collect wreckage from the downed plane.Fabien Muhire
Sunday’s tragic plane crash has deeply affected those at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport.
Esayse Mengistu, an Ethiopian Airlines ground service employee who is usually based at the airport but was at the crash site with a team from the airline, told CNN that identifying the remains of the 157 people who perished in the accident was difficult, and that to have such a terrible accident happen so close to home had shaken many to their cores.
“It’s hard to differentiate whose body parts are whose since the plane is in pieces,” Mengistu said.
“It feels like we’ve lost members of our family, our people, everyone has been deeply affected by this. Not just me but all Ethiopian people.”
CNN
