The airport at Addis Ababa is at 7,200 feet elevation. The 737 never reached more than about 2,000 feet above ground before it crashed eight minutes after takeoff, a duration that normally would take the aircraft close to its cruising altitude at more than 30,000 feet. Flightradar24, a website that tracks aircraft flights, reported that during its first three minutes the plane experienced repeated inflections of its vertical speed and at one point dropped about 400 feet.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 12, 2019 00:22 UTC