ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines has offered the grieving families of 157 victims of last Sunday's Boeing 737 Max plane crash sacks of the earth to bury in place of their loved ones.

As per AP, officials have begun delivering bags of earth to the family of the victims of the crash instead of the remains of their loved ones as the identification will take such a long time.

"The soil came as it became impossible to identify bodies and hand over remains to family members," one family member said.

"We will not rest till we are given the real body or body parts of our loved ones." Meanwhile, black box data indicate "clear similarities" between last week's crash and the Oct crash of an Indonesian Lion Air plane, Ethiopia's transport minister said.