‘Boeing was at my father’s funeral and I was not’

Zipporah Kuria is fighting back tears.

Eight months after the crash of the Boeing 737 Max which killed her father Joseph Waithaka, the site of impact has only just been covered over.

Officials from Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines are believed to have attended a ceremony at the site on Thursday, but because of the short notice Zipporah was unable to get there.

“It is absurd. It makes me shudder that Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines are at my father’s funeral and I’m not.”

The accident, in which 157 people were killed, occurred in a rural area to the south east of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

It left behind a deep crater, which until this week still contained accident debris – and some human remains.

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Families of those killed say they were left horrified after they visited the site last month and found that recent rains had uncovered bones and other items.

Some, they said, were floating in flood water in the crater.

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Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 was lost minutes after take-off on what should have been a routine flight from Addis Ababa to the Kenyan capital Nairobi on 10 March.

It came down in farmland, in a deeply rural area. In the immediate aftermath, those human remains that could be found were removed, along with the plane’s flight recorders and large items of wreckage.

The crash is believed to have occurred after a flight control system known as MCAS deployed at the wrong time, forcing the nose of the aircraft down when the pilots were trying to gain height.

A similar malfunction has been blamed for the loss of a near-identical 737 Max in Indonesia a year ago. The aircraft has been grounded for the past nine months, banned from flying by aviation authorities around the world.

The violence of the impact of the Ethiopian Airlines flight meant that when my colleagues and I visited the site in May, there was still a great deal of smaller debris lying in the fields.

The deep impact crater itself remained, alongside huge mounds of earth from the recovery operation, with a rough wooden fence the only barrier to access. Animals were able to roam freely across the site.

There were no guards, no official presence.

After that, the victims’ relatives say, the situation worsened, as a result of seasonal rains. They have been demanding action.

Nadia Millieron, whose daughter Samya Rose Stumo died in the crash, recently told the BBC: “There were bones being revealed all the time and local people are coming to the site and covering them.

“We want Ethiopian Airlines to move the piles of earth into the crater, take the unidentifiable remains into the crater and to cover everything”.

Ethiopian Airlines, which is managing the site, told victims’ families it was aware of the issue, but claimed insurance issues had prevented it from taking action.

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Zipporah Kuria

However, after coming under pressure from the relatives, and following an investigation by the BBC, it appears those difficulties have now been overcome.

On Thursday, rows of coffins were placed neatly in the crater. These contained remains that had previously been removed for forensic analysis, but which could not be identified due to contamination. Then, they were covered over and the crater itself was filled, the dark earth matching the surrounding fields.

The site is now a permanent grave.

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But while officials from Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines are believed to have attended a ceremony at the site, relatives say they were only told two days ago by email.

As a result, only two of the victims’ relatives were able to get there on time. They believe Ethiopian Airlines had a duty to keep them informed. The BBC has approached the carrier for a comment.

Boeing has refused to comment on reports one of its senior executives, Jennifer Lowe, was among those present.

Last month, Zipporah had travelled with her family to Ethiopia to collect and bring home some of her father’s remains.

Zipporah says it is “heartbreaking” that she was unable to get to the site in time for the operation to cover it.

“My dad is being buried, well most of him, as we only received a small amount of him back,” she told the BBC over the phone on Thursday.

She says she would have jumped on a flight if it had been possible.

“They’ve robbed us of our closure,” she says.