An Ethiopian Airlines flight with 157 people on board crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday morning from Ethiopia's capital headed to Nairobi, the airline said.

The airline's statement said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on board the Boeing 737 that crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa, on its way to Kenya's capital.

"There are no survivors on board the flight, which carried passengers from 33 countries," said state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, quoting an unidentified source at the airline.

The crash occurred around Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 km south of the capital, shortly after taking off at 5:38 GMT, said the airline's statement.

The plane showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said in a Twitter post. Visibility appeared to be clear.

There were no immediate details on what caused the crash.

State broadcaster EBC reported all passengers were dead and that the passengers included 33 nationalities.

An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said 32 Kenyans and 17 Ethiopians were among the victims.

Eight Chinese passengers were also on board the plane, China's state TV said.

Grieving family members gathered at Bole Airport. A statement by the Ethiopian prime minister's office offered its "deepest condolences" to families.

Kenya's transport minister, James Macharia, told reporters that authorities had not yet received the passenger manifest. He said an emergency response had been set up for family and friends.

"My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board," Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said, as many Kenyans braced for the worst.

We discuss possible causes of Ethiopia plane crash with Desmond Ross, an aviation industry specialist.

Africa's largest carrier

The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines calls itself Africa's largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent.

Records show that the plane was new. The Planespotters civil aviation database shows that the Boeing 737-8 MAX was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in mid-November.

Boeing said it was "deeply saddened" by the crash.

In October, another Boeing 737-8 MAX plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, killing all 189 people on board the plane Lion Air flight.

The cockpit data recorder showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights, though Lion Air initially claimed that problems with the aircraft had been fixed.

The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was in 2010, when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Beirut killing all 90 people on board.

Reforms in aviation sector 

Sunday's crash comes as the country's reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has vowed to open up the airline and other sectors to foreign investment in a major transformation of the state-centered economy.

Ethiopian Airlines has been expanding assertively, recently opening a route to Moscow and in January inaugurating a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity.

Speaking at the inauguration, the prime minister challenged the airline to build a new "Airport City" terminal in Bishoftu ‚ where Sunday's crash occurred.