Empty coffins carried by families at mass funeral of Ethiopia crash victims

Empty coffins draped with Ethiopia’s national flag were paraded at a mass funeral for the victims of last week’s tragic plane crash.

Thousands of people turned up at the service in the capital of Addis Ababa to pay their respects for the 157 people who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash last Sunday.

Bereaved relatives and friends were seen weeping, while others were also seen fainting, as 17 empty caskets past by them during the function at the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

They were offered a 1kg (2.2lbs) bag of charred soil to bury as part of Sunday’s function, AP news agency reports.

‘The soil came as it became impossible to identify bodies and hand over remains to family members,’ one family member reportedly said, adding: ‘We will not rest until we are given the real body or body parts of our loved ones.’

All those on board the Boeing 737 flight from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport  to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi died after the plane crashed six minutes into the flight.

They were from a total of 36 different nationalities, including nine UK nationals.

Ethiopia is leading the investigation into the March 10 crash and is being supported by countries around the world, including the US and France.

Ethiopia’s transport minister said on Saturday ‘considerable time’ may go by before the reason for the crash is uncovered.

‘An investigation of such magnitude requires a careful analysis and considerable time to come up with something concrete,’ Dagmawit Moges told a news conference, the BBC reported.

The Boeing 737 that crashed was the same model as that which crashed five months ago killing all 187 on board.

The Lion Air flight crashed 11 minutes after take off from Jakarta, Indonesia.