Ethiopian plane crash: Flight cancellation claimed my mother’s life

Mama Sahra Hasan, one of the victims of Sunday's Ethiopian plane crash.

Mama Sahra Hasan, 59, could be alive today had it not been for an unprecedented flight cancellation last Saturday in Egypt.

She and her son Nasrudin Abdikadir boarded their plane in Germany, with a scheduled stopover in Cairo before their onward connection to Nairobi. Reasons for the cancellation have not been shared, even though that would not mean much for now.

The wreckage of the Ethiopian Airline that killed 157 people on Sunday. (Maxwell Agwanda, Standard)

Tens of Mama Sahra's kin including sons and father narrated the flight changes in Addis Ababa as they waited anxiously for any information, not of survival but if they could just see her body the last time.

Huddled together at their hotel lobby, their conversation hushed, and their collective sorrow palpable. Most had travelled on long flights to Addis Ababa from their adopted homes having sought secondary citizenships in search of answers, answers that are not coming through. Mama and son, for instance, are also UK citizens besides keeping close links with their Kenyan family with roots in Wajir East.

Clothes were scattered all over at the plane crash scene at Igera in Ethiopia. (Maxwell Agwanda, Standard)

But the second lag of the flight was cancelled and the passengers were bumped on another flight that would make another stopover at Bole International Airport before the final leg to Nairobi. It is the final leg that ended just six minutes after take-off as their plane developed mechanical problems which ultimately caused it to crash into the ground headlong.

Mama Sahra was among the people on board the flight which had no survivors, as investigators dig for vital clues to help understand what caused the newly-delivered jet to crash.

The Sunday Ethiopian Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash claimed 157 lives.

The Boeing 737-8 MAX was on a regular flight from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa when it came down shortly after take-off near the town of Bishoftu, some 31 miles (50km) to the southeast. The plane left the airport at 8.38am local time before losing contact with the control tower at 8.44am.