A jetliner carrying 157 people crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital on Sunday, killing everyone aboard. At least 35 nationalities were among the dead, one Saudi national was among the dead.
Saad Khalaf Al Mutairi,36-years-old and a father of two, was in the Ethiopian capital to hire workers for jobs in Saudi Arabia. His family said he worked in an X-ray department in the King Saud Medical City for the last 11 years.
The brother, uncle and cousin of the Saudi passengers who was killed in the plane crash are in Addis Ababa to help with the identification of his body, his family said.
In an interview with Al Arabiya his cousin said that the body of Saad was still not found and they are still waiting.
Al Mutairi's colleague at work, Sahaj Al Otaibi, who also works as a radiologist at King Saud Medical City, said in an interview with Al Arabiya that his colleague "had high morals and was a good friend to everyone at work and served patients without discrimination or negligence"
Saudi ambassador to Ethiopia Abdullah Faleh Al Arjani confirmed that Al Mutairi was on a recruitment trip.
The family will accompany the body as soon as it is identified, he added.
It was not clear what caused the Ethiopian Airlines plane to go down in clear weather. But the accident was strikingly similar to last year's crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Both crashes involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and both happened minutes after the jets became airborne.
The Ethiopian pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return to the airport, the airline's CEO told reporters.
