A Nigerian-born Canadian professor who died in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash Sunday morning made a poignant biblical social media post before boarding the Boeing 737-800 max flight ET302.
Professor Pius Adesanmi who is an academic, quoted a poignant bible verse.
“If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me,” the verse, identified in the post as Psalm 139:9-10 reads.
Adesanmi is smiling as he takes what appears to be a selfie in the airport. Out of shot, he holds his Canadian passport and boarding pass.
Writing for CNN in 2014, he explained how social media is allowing Africans both at home and in the diaspora to shape opinion about the story of their continent.
Crater “the size of a basketball field”
There is plenty of activity at the scene of the crash, about a two-hour drive from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The remains of the aircraft sit in a crater about the size of a basketball field, where Kenyan Red Cross officials wearing face masks and gloves are gingerly searching for debris, belongings and body parts.
Personal items such as handbags and knapsacks are being searched for IDs, while parts from the plane are being placed in a separate pile for further inspection. Two large diggers are on hand, clearing soil from the scene.
Hundreds of local residents are surrounding the perimeter of the site.
“It feels like we’ve lost family”
Sunday’s tragic plane crash has deeply affected those at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport.
Esayse Mengistu, an Ethiopian Airlines ground service employee who is usually based at the airport but was at the crash site with a team from the airline, told CNN that identifying the remains of the 157 people who perished in the accident was difficult, and that to have such a terrible accident happen so close to home had shaken many to their cores.
“It’s hard to differentiate whose body parts are whose since the plane is in pieces,” Mengistu said.
“It feels like we’ve lost members of our family, our people, everyone has been deeply affected by this. Not just me but all Ethiopian people.”
CNN