Grammy-Winning musician Ricky Kej reveals he was meant to be on Ethiopian Airlines crash flight: 'My life was saved'
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kej disclosed that he had originally booked a seat on the ill-fated flight, which crashed en route to Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.
Recounting the moment that changed his fate, Kej wrote, "I had booked a ticket on the Ethiopian Airlines flight to Kenya that unfortunately crashed. In the last minute, a colleague insisted I travel on an earlier flight, so my life was saved. Many attendees were killed on the flight. So this is personal for me, because Boeing and only Boeing was responsible for those deaths (sic)."
Kej's emotional post came in response to a thread by journalist Barkha Dutt, who had criticised the western media's narrative around a recent Air India crash report and highlighted concerns around Boeing's systems.
She wrote, 'Scandalous that Air India Crash report being used by western media to blame pilots for cutting fuel. The report does not say that at all. But yes, the report flags an FAA advisory on a problem with Boeing fuel switches locking - in that case why has the report not recommended further investigations against 787 planes (sic)'
The tragic crash, which took place on March 10, 2019, involved a Boeing 737 MAX 8 and followed a similar disaster just five months earlier — the Lion Air crash in Indonesia.
The two incidents, both involving the same aircraft model, raised urgent global concerns about the safety of Boeing's MCAS (Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System), a software feature later found to be faulty and inadequately disclosed to pilots.
More than five years after the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy, Kej's revelation underscores the continued scrutiny of Boeing's role in the twin disasters — and the lack of accountability that still angers victims' families and survivors.
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