An Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane with 149 passengers and eight crew members on board crashed on Sunday morning, the airlines said.
In a statement, the airlines said the Boeing 737 plane bound for Kenya was on a routine flight from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa when it crashed near the central town of Bushoftu, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the capital.
The statement said that the communication with the plane was lost six minutes after it took off.
It said "search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties."
Most of the passengers are assumed to be Kenyans and relatives of the passengers flocked Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital Nairobi to get information about their loved ones.
Fighting tears, Mary Atieno, a Nigerian woman, told Anadolu Agency: "I was expecting my husband in Nairobi. I have heard that everyone has died. I just want his body for burial, I even have no words."
