All the 157 persons on board an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on Sunday morning are dead.

There were 147 passengers and eight crew members on board the airline.

The BBC reeports that officials have retrieved the wreckage of the plane and confirmed the deaths.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 plane on a routine flight to Nairobi, Kenya from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, crashed shortly after take off.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister was the first to suggest a large casualty from the crash.

“The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express its deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning”, the message on government’s Twitter handle read.

An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said the crash occurred at 8:44 a.m. local time.