Report: Ethiopian Airliner Crashed Off Lebanon - Updates

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/26/lebanon.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T2

Official: Ethiopian pilot was told to change course
January 26, 2010 3:42 p.m. EST

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- Air traffic controllers in Lebanon were telling the pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines flight to change course shortly before it crashed into the sea, the country's transportation minister told CNN Tuesday.

An international search team was combing Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline for signs of life Tuesday amid fears that all 90 people aboard the Addis Ababa-bound airliner perished in the accident, authorities said.

Lebanese Transportation Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said Tuesday it was too early to determine whether pilot error had caused the crash.

He said the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders would need to be recovered to determine why Flight 409 disappeared from radar screens shortly after taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport at about 2:30 a.m. local time.

The control tower lost contact with the plane before it made a course correction Monday, al-Aridi said.

In a statement, Ethiopian Airlines said the pilot of the flight had more than 20 years of experience flying various aircraft with the airline's network. The plane had been declared safe and fit to fly following a regular maintenance service on December 25, 2009, the airline said.

The Lebanese military reported Tuesday that 14 bodies had been found -- nine fewer than an earlier count. Confusion early in the search led to double-counting, they said. No survivors have been found.

The search included aircraft from the United States, Britain, France and Cyprus.

The U.S. military sent the USS Ramage -- a guided missile destroyer -- and Navy P-3 aircraft in response to Lebanese requests for assistance, according to U.S. defense officials.

"We don't believe that there is any indication for sabotage or foul play," Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Monday.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is also sending an investigator because the plane was made by a U.S. manufacturer.

The Boeing 737-800 had eight crew members and 82 passengers -- 51 Lebanese nationals, 23 Ethiopians, two Britons and citizens from Canada, Iraq, Russia, Syria, Turkey and France -- when it went down, the airline said

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=111062&c...

The Daily Star - Lebanon

Time to assess the tragedy
By The Daily Star

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Editorial

While a full investigation of Monday’s tragic airline crash in Lebanon is required before a proper assessment of the incident can be made, several points stand out in the immediate aftermath. One is that several levels of decision-making are at play in such an incident. First, officials from the airport and the civil aviation authority have it in their power to delay or cancel flights. However, the fact that other airplanes made successful landings and take-offs during the same period of time indicates that the situation in the early hours of Monday morning didn’t appear to be exceptional.

Also, the pilot of a given plane can also assess where the situation warrants a delay or cancellation of a flight.

On its own, inclement weather on its own is usually not the “cause” of such disasters. The French airliner that disappeared off the coast of Brazil last year was certainly encountering heavy winds and thunderstorms at the time, but problems with the aircraft’s sensors and electrical systems were believed to have contributed to the plane’s sudden descent.

We should also remember that Lebanese notions of inclement weather aren’t a proper guide for making assessments about dangerous flight conditions. Planes are designed to withstand being struck by lightning, and the storms that ravaged the country in recent days aren’t considered anything out of the ordinary. The same planes that fly in and out of our airport are designed to routinely make flights between cities with considerably harsher weather than ours on the Mediterranean. Airline safety is an international responsibility; personnel at other airports in the world must ensure that all possible safety measures are observed.

A combination of things should be looked at to assess Monday’s tragedy, and the infamous black box will likely play the leading role in deciding where to affix responsibility.

President Michel Sleiman has ruled out sabotage, and amid the lack of pre-flight warnings to the airline, or post-crash claims of responsibility, it appears that a premeditated attack can be ruled out.

All of this indicates that flying by plane remains one of the safest ways in the world to travel, and considerably safer than the world’s roads, whether it’s measured by the amount of distance or the number of hours spent on a journey.

In operational terms, and with their limited resources, Lebanese officials and military-security personnel mobilized to the best of their ability to conduct search and rescue operations, aided by the efforts of other countries and the United Nations.

As we await a definitive statement on the exact circumstances surrounding the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, our condolences go out to the families of all the victims of the tragedy, in Lebanon, Ethiopia, France and all of the other countries affected.

http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00450/Lebanon_airline__450801gm-a...

http://en.afrik.com/article16836.html

Ethiopian PM consoles families of Airline crash victims as list confirms 90
French ambassador’s wife was on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET409

Monday 25 January 2010 / by Desalegn Sisay, Theophilus O'Donkor

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Girma Wake, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, have announced their condolences to the families of victims of Ethiopian Airline crash in Beirut Lebanon.

The plane, a Boeing 737-800 carrying 83 passengers and seven crew members, crashed immediately after take off from Beirut airport in Lebanon around midnight GMT. It was a direct flight to Addis Ababa.

It is believed that the passengers include 54 Lebanese, 23 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one French woman, one Syrian, one British-Lebanese, one Canadian-Lebanese, a Russian-Lebanese and seven crew members. Marla Sanchez Pietton, wife of France’s ambassador to Lebanon, Denis Pietton, was also on board.

Though the total number of causalities have not yet been confirmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister announced his condolences from the Somali Regional town of Jijiga, where he arrived today to celebrate the National Pastoralist Day. “We are now celebrating this event in a depressing [mood] due to the Ethiopian Airline crash,” he said.

Girma Wake, CEO of the airline, gave a press conference a few hours ago, during which he told journalists that the rescue effort is has been strengthened in collaboration with government of Lebanon as well as UN rescuers based there.

The government of Ethiopia has also established a committee, led by the Transport and Communication Ministry, to work with the Lebanese government to speed up the rescue operation.

“The Lebanese Government has formed a rescue team lead by the Ministry of Transport. Also taking part in this rescue mission are the Lebanese Defense forces, including the Navy and the UN peace keeping force in the region”, Girma told Journalists.

He also said that a team comprising of 14 people from Ethiopia’s Safety & Emergency Response department, Medical Unit, Flight Operations, Maintenance & Engineering, the Ethiopian Civil Aviation as well as Ethiopia’s Chief Airline Security office has been sent to Beirut to provide additional support.

Meanwhile, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has rejected any sabotage speculations. "Sabotage is ruled out as of now" he said, "The investigation will uncover the cause". Although the plane took off in bad weather, the cause of the crash was not immediately known. Lebanese Transport Minister, Ghazi Aridi, confirmed that "the weather undoubtedly was very bad" when the plane took off.

Official reports from the Airline have revealed that the 8 year old aircraft was serviced on Christmas day, December 25, and passed inspection.

A defence ministry official told reporters that the Boeing 737 exploded into four pieces before crashing shortly after takeoff whilst a release by the Lebanese army indicated that the plane was "on fire shortly after takeoff".

Several bodies have so far been recovered and experts on the ground have expressed doubts over anyone surviving the crash.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/lebanon/7074402/Ethiopian-a...

Ethiopian airliner was on fire before crash
An Ethiopian airliner that crashed off the coast of Lebanon was on fire before it plummeted into the Mediterranean with no known survivors.

By Adrian Blomfield, Andrew Hough and Josh Hersh in Beirut
Published: 7:17PM GMT 25 Jan 2010

Two British passport holders were among 90 passengers and crew on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 when it tumbled into the sea minutes after take off from Beirut's international airport in poor weather.

Although Lebanese government officials were quick to rule out terrorism, they confirmed witness accounts of a "ball of fire" falling into the sea.

Lebanese army officials said the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 bound for Addis Ababa, caught fire shortly after take off and broke into at least four pieces before impact.

Last night, Lebanese authorities signalled that hopes of finding any survivors had all but vanished. Elias Murr, the country's defence minister, said that weather conditions were most likely to blame for the disaster.

"Bad weather was apparently the cause of the crash," he said. "We have ruled out foul play so far."

An investigation into the cause of the crash has been launched. According to one aviation expert, speaking anonymously, the aircraft probably caught fire after what he described as a "fuel tank ignition event" that may have had nothing to do with the weather.

Investigators are likely to examine if a technical fault caused the engine to catch fire, although it is a remote possibility that a lightning strike could be to blame. Lightning regularly strikes aircraft without causing structural damage, but experts say that in extremely rare circumstances it is capable of downing an airliner.

Extreme turbulence or wind shear of the type thought to have brought down a Kenya Airways flight in Cameroon in May 2007, could also be to blame, the expert said.

The plane came down shortly before 3am local time as driving rain and heavy winds pounded the Levantine coast.

As distraught relatives gathered at Beirut's Rafik Hariri airport, some criticised Ethiopian Airlines for allowing the plane to take off.

"They should have delayed the flight for an hour or two to protect the passengers," one said. "There had been strong lightning bolts and we hear that lightning strikes at planes especially during take off."

Yet no other aircraft cancelled flights at what is a traditionally busy departure time from Beirut. Departure records showed that Lufthansa and Middle East Airlines were among carriers that took off from Beirut without encountering problems.

The two Britons on board the stricken aircraft were named as and Kevin Grainger and Afif Krisht, 57, a father of six.

Mr Krisht's former wife Tania said she was "still praying for a miracle that he might be clinging to a bit of debris somewhere."

"He was one of the most generous men and was still one of my best friends," she added. "I will miss him dearly."

Mr Krisht, who also held a Lebanese passport, owned an Angola based haulage company.

Passenger seats, baby sandals and debris washed ashore but Lebanese officials said they had recovered just 21 bodies from the still stormy waters.

Lebanese army patrol boats were seen scouring the waters around the crash site. Helicopters from nearby Cyprus were also heading towards the scene, while British soldiers stationed on the island were ordered to remain on standby to assist if required.

In a continent with a reputation for lax aviation standards, Ethiopian Airlines is widely respected for its professionalism and attention to safety.

Until yesterday, the airline had not been involved in a major crash since November 1996, when a Nairobi-bound passenger jet was commandeered by hijackers and was forced to crash land in the Indian Ocean, killing 125 people on board.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=543763&publicationSubCategory...

Bodies in sea reported after Ethiopian airliner crash
(philstar.com) Updated January 25, 2010 03:46 PM

BEIRUT (AP) – Lebanon's transport minister has confirmed that an Ethiopian Airlines plane with about 90 people on board has crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut.

Ghazi Aridi said the plane went down about 2 miles (3.5 kilometers) off the Lebanese coast and navy ships and aircraft are searching for survivors.

The accident happened during a storm over Beirut, he said. The Lebanese army said in a statement saying the plane was "on fire shortly after takeoff."

A Lebanese military official speaking anonymously said four bodies have been recovered from the sea.

A French embassy official in Beirut, also speaking anonymously, said the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon was on the plane.

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As the hours ticked by with no news of survivors, many of the relatives began to assume the worst. One tearful man with white hair wailed to a friend: “My son postponed the flight three times, then he flew last night.”

Near him, a middle-aged woman in a headscarf cried hysterically, “Oh God, Oh God, how can I live without my son? Oh God, why did you do this to us?”

Ethiopian Airlines is one of the fastest-growing airlines in Africa with about 550 flights around the world each week. In 1996, a hijacked jet crashed into the Indian Ocean after it ran out of fuel. This month one of the airline’s Boeing 757s performed an emergency landing in Malta after the pilot reported trouble in one of the engines.

“What happened today is a big disaster for the country,” Qassem Hashem, an MP from south Lebanon, told The Times. Mr Hashem added that one of his parliamentary colleagues, an MP with the militant Shia Hezbollah, was booked on the flight but cancelled his seat because of an urgent commitment in Beirut.

In one corner of the lounge were four young Ethiopian women, sitting on the floor, teary-eyed and hugging each other. Many Ethiopian women travel to Lebanon to work as domestic maids.

Zeinab Birro, wearing a full-length black shador, said that she had taken her maid, Mickia Hussein, to the airport the previous night. She had brought some of Ms Hussein’s Ethiopian friends to the airport to await news.

“We said our goodbyes and I hugged and kissed her,” Mrs Birro said. “She was with me for three years. I begged her not to leave, but she said she had to go home.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7002117.ece

From Times Online
January 25, 2010
British victim of Ethiopian airliner crash named

Two Britons were tonight among 90 people feared dead after an Ethiopian airliner crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in heavy storms.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 took off at 2.30am from Beirut airport. The Boeing 737 lost contact with the control tower shortly afterwards.

“The control tower was assisting the pilot of the plane on take-off and suddenly lost contact for no known reason,” Ghazi Aridi, the Lebanese Minister of Transport, said.

The aircraft was seen crashing into the sea in a ball of fire about seven miles south of the airport and 3.5 miles off the coast. Michel Suleiman, the Lebanese President, ruled out sabotage.

As dusk fell today, some 30 bodies had been recovered, but hopes were fading that anyone survived. Among the 90 passengers and crew were 54 Lebanese, including two who also held British passports, 20 Ethiopians and two French citizens, one of them Marla Sanchez Pietton, the wife of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to Beirut. Her body was among those recovered.

Afif Krisht, 57, was one of two Britons on board the Ethiopian airliner. Mohammed Tajieddine, his uncle, said that Mr Krisht was travelling with two others from his village to Angola, where he had a business. “Nobody has told us anything,” Mr Tajieddine said. “We don’t know if they are alive, dead, whether their bodies have been recovered.”

The rescue operation was led by the Lebanese navy with assistance from a United Nations maritime task force that patrols the Lebanese coastline. The Royal Air Force sent a helicopter and France sent a plane, both from the nearby island of Cyprus. The US Navy’s Sixth Fleet, based in the Mediterranean, also offered to help in the search.

The wreckage scattered over the sea drifted north on the current and by mid-morning was a mile off the coast opposite Beirut airport. Hundreds of onlookers gathered on the seafront, ignoring the cold wind and salty sea spray to watch helicopters flying low over the sea searching for survivors. Soldiers dragged ashore wreckage, including seats.

Sa'ad Hariri, the Lebanese Prime Minister who was in Saudi Arabia, returned to Beirut and met relatives of the passengers at the airport.

“We are doing everything in our power to find survivors,” Mr Hariri told reporters. Declaring an official day of mourning, he added: “Divers will look for the black box to find out the reasons behind the crash,” promising that the investigation would be “transparent”.

Relatives of the passengers gathered in the VIP lounge of Beirut airport, some sitting in family groups watching live coverage on television, others weeping and consoling themselves.

Hussein Barakat had driven for two hours from his home village of Zibqinein, in southern Lebanon, to find news of his son, also called Hussein, 26.

“My son was returning to Angola where he lives,” Mr Barakat said. “God willing he is alive. He has a wife and daughter waiting for him.”

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Ethiopian Airlines' CEO Girma Wake said the aircraft had been serviced on Dec. 25 and passed inspection. He said the plane had been leased in September from New York-based CIT Aerospace. A CIT spokesman declined to comment and referred questions to Ethiopian Airlines.

The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines has long had a reputation for high-quality service compared to other African airlines, with two notable crashes in more than 20 years.

A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines jet crash-landed off the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean when it ran out of fuel in November 1996, killing 126 of the 175 people aboard. In September 1988, an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed shortly after taking off when it ran into a flock of birds, killing 31 of the 104 people on board.

Ethiopian Airlines announced last week that it signed an agreement with Boeing to buy 10 more of the 737-800s at an estimated $767 million. The order will expand the airline's fleet from the 36 aircraft it has now — not including the 737-800 that crashed Monday.

The plane was carrying 83 passengers and seven crew, Lebanese officials said. Aridi, the transportation minister, identified the passengers as 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one Syrian, one Canadian of Lebanese origin, one Russian of Lebanese origin, a French woman and two Britons of Lebanese origin.

Ethiopian Airlines reported that there were 82 passengers and eight crew; the discrepancy could not immediately be explained.

Weeping relatives streamed into Beirut's airport to wait for news on their loved ones. One woman dropped to her knees in tears; another cried out, "Where is my son?"

Andree Qusayfi said his 35-year-old brother, Ziad, was traveling to Ethiopia for his job at a computer company, but was planning to return to Lebanon for good soon.

"We begged him to postpone his flight because of the storm," Qusayfi said, his eyes red from crying. "But he insisted on going because he had work appointments."

——

Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, and Samson Haileyesus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.

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The Boeing 737 is considered one of the safest planes in airline service. The jet was first introduced in the 1960s, and today is the workhorse on many short- and medium-range routes.

Still, over the past 15 years it has been involved in a series of incidents and crashes linked to problems with a valve in the rudder assembly. The valve reportedly would malfunction and cause the rudder to turn independently of the pilot's commands.

The problem was considered resolved after operators of older Boeing 737s were ordered to carry out inspections and upgrades of the rudder control systems.

Sidney Dekker, a professor of flight safety at the School of Aviation at Lund University in Sweden, said the rudder problem has been corrected by the manufacturer and that he'd be "hugely surprised" if it had anything to do with the crash.

Dekker, himself a 737 pilot, said that if reports of an engine fire proved to be correct, the accident could have resulted from a loss of control at a relatively low altitude where it would have been difficult to recover.

He noted that the 737's engines had extra power in order to fulfill performance requirements in the event of the loss of an engine at takeoff. This tended to produce a turning movement of the entire aircraft — known as yaw — toward the dead engine.

Poor visibility in low clouds combined with high winds may have contributed to the problem faced by the pilots trying to regain control, he said.

An international rescue effort, with help from the United States, Cyprus and the U.N., was launched after the crash. The weather hampered the search as ships plowed through tall waves. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced a day of mourning and closed schools and government offices.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said terrorism was not suspected in the crash of Flight 409. "Sabotage is ruled out as of now," he said.

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"We saw fire falling down from the sky into the sea," said Khaled Naser, a gas station attendant who saw the plane plunge into waters that had reached 64 degrees (18 degrees Celsius) by Monday afternoon.

The Lebanese army also said the plane was on fire shortly after takeoff. A defense official said some witnesses reported the plane broke up into three pieces.

Aviation safety analyst Chris Yates said reports of fire could suggest "some cataclysmic failure of one of the engines" or that a bird or debris had been sucked into the engine.

He noted that modern aircraft are built to withstand all but the foulest weather conditions.

"One wouldn't have thought that a nasty squall in and of itself would be the prime cause of an accident like this," said Yates, an analyst based in Manchester, England.

Still, one prominent analyst cast doubt on the accuracy of witness reports of flames.

"Eyewitnesses almost always report aircraft exploding in the sky or seeing heavy, heavy flames," said William Voss, head of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Alexandria, Va.

Beirut airport is equipped with a sophisticated weather radar that flight controllers use to guide planes around the towering thunderheads and accompanying winds and lightning that can cause structural damage to airframes.

The electrically charged clouds are part of massive storms that have regularly formed off the Lebanese coastline this winter.

Takeoffs in such poor weather conditions are particularly difficult, and the controllers often assist pilots to find a way through the storm.

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Witnesses: Plane Tumbled Out Of Sky Off Lebanon

by The Associated Press
BEIRUT January 25, 2010, 04:58 pm ET

The first sign of trouble was a flash of light on the horizon Monday — and then witnesses said the Boeing 737 tumbled like "fire falling down from the sky" into the stormy Mediterranean Sea.

All 90 aboard were feared dead in the pre-dawn crash. Lebanon's leaders ruled out terrorism while investigators collected witness accounts in hopes they could provide clues. Aviation experts cautioned it was too early to know what brought down the Ethiopian Airlines jet — particularly without the black boxes.

Many people were giving DNA samples to help identify the remains of their loved ones; one man identified his 3-year-old nephew by the boy's overalls.

"Please find my son," pleaded Zeinab Seklawi, whose 24-year-old son Yasser was on Flight 409, which was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

At the Government Hospital in Beirut, Red Cross workers brought in bodies covered with wool blankets as relatives gathered nearby. No survivors had been found by nightfall, and the health minister told reporters 21 bodies were recovered. Marla Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, was among those on board, according to the French Embassy.

The Boeing 737-800 took off at about 2:30 a.m. in driving rain, lightening and thunder, and went down two miles (3.5 kilometers) off the coast, said Ghazi Aridi, the public works and transportation minister.

Hours after the crash, pieces of the plane and other debris were washing ashore, including a baby sandal, passenger seats, a fire extinguisher, suitcases and bottles of medicine.

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Ethiopian airliner with 90 aboard crashes off Lebanon
January 25, 2010 2:11 a.m. EST

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- An Ethiopian airliner with 90 people aboard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Lebanon early Monday, authorities said.

By Monday morning, rescue crews had recovered two bodies off the Lebanese coast, where the Boeing aircraft had gone down, the Lebanese army said. The army and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon continued to scour the area for survivors.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 left Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut about 2:30 a.m. and was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

It disappeared from radar a few minutes after takeoff, said Ghazi El Aridi, Lebanon's minister of public works and transportation.

The Boeing 737-800 had seven crew members and 82 passengers -- 51 Lebanese nationals, 23 Ethiopians, two Britons, an Iraqi, a Turk, a Syrian, a Canadian, a Russian and a person from France, the airline said.

An earlier tally provided by the Lebanese government varied slightly.

Among the passengers was the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, said Anne Charlotte of the French embassy.

Authorities did not immediately know the cause of the crash.

The plane crashed about 3.5 km (2.1 miles) west of the town of Na'ameh. Na'ameh is 15 km (9 miles) south of Beirut.

Government-owned Ethiopian Airlines is one of the largest in Africa.

Unlike several African carriers that are not allowed in European air space because of shoddy safety records, Ethiopian Airlines serves Europe. It serves three other continents as well, for a total of 56 destinations.

The airline has such a commendable safety record that some expanding airlines in Asia have lured away its pilots at high pay, The New York Times reported in 2006.

The airline has experienced two fatal crashes since 1980.

In November 1996, a flight bound for Ivory Coast, also known as Cote D'Ivoire, was hijacked by three men who demanded that the pilot fly to Australia. The pilot attempted an emergency landing near the Comoros Islands off Africa as the plane ran out of fuel, but crashed. About 130 of the 172 people aboard died, according to published reports.

And in September 1988, a flight struck a flock of birds during takeoff. During the crash landing that followed, 31 people of the 105 people aboard died.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8478060.stm

BBC NEWS

Ethiopian Airlines jet 'crashes into sea off Beirut'

An Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after taking off from Beirut airport in Lebanon.

Lebanese aviation sources said the plane was heading for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and had 85 passengers on board.

Reuters news agency quotes airport sources as saying that about 50 of the passengers were Lebanese nationals.

The majority of the remaining passengers were Ethiopian, they add.

Thousands of Ethiopians are employed as domestic helpers in Lebanon.

The plane, believed to be a Boeing 737, disappeared from radar screens some five minutes after take-off, Reuters reports.

The plane is said to have left Beirut shortly after its scheduled departure time of 0310 local time.

Residents who live near the coast are reported to have witnessed a plane on fire crashing into the sea.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/ethiopia/7068288/...

Telegraph

Ethiopian Airlines plane crashes into Mediterranean sea

Some 85 people are feared dead after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the Mediterranean sea shortly after taking off from Beirut airport.

Published: 2:59AM GMT 25 Jan 2010

The plane, said to be a Boeing 737, disappeared off the radar shortly after takeoff.

An airline official said contact was lost about 45 minutes after the early morning departure.

About 50 of the passengers were Lebanese nationals, most of the others were Ethiopians, airline sources said. There were thought to be seven crew members.

The plane took off shortly after its scheduled time of 3:10 a.m. (0010 GMT), flying south-west.

According to the Ethiopian Airlines website, the flight from Beirut was bound for Addis Ababa.

It had been scheduled to land at Addis Ababa at 7:50am local time.

According to one source, residents on the coast saw a plane on fire crashing.

Senior Lebanese officials headed to Rafik Hariri International Airport after news of the crash. The plane had flown in from Addis Ababa earlier in the night, the sources said.

Hundreds of Ethiopians work as domestic helpers in Lebanon.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/14-ethi...

BEIRUT: An Ethiopian Airlines plane with 85 passengers on board crashed into the Mediterranean sea shortly after taking off from Beirut airport in the early hours of Monday, airport sources said.

The plane disappeared off the radar shortly after takeoff, the sources said.

There were no further immediate details. —Reuter

Ethiopian airliner crashes after takeoff from Beirut

Monday, 25 Jan, 2010