Ethiopian airliner crashes after takeoff from Beirut

Sun Jan 24, 2010 9:52pm EST

BEIRUT, Jan 25 (Reuters) – An Ethiopian Airlines [ETHA.UL] plane with 85 passengers on board crashed into the Mediterranean sea shortly after taking off from Beirut international airport in the early hours of Monday, airport sources said. The plane, said to be a Boeing by one source, disappeared off the radar some five minutes after takeoff.

About 50 passengers were Lebanese nationals, most of the others were Ethiopians, the 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, the sources said.

Ethiopian Airlines’ website shows it has a flight from Beirut to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa around that time, operating a Boeing 737. The airline could not immediately be reached for comment.

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.

Reporting by Nadim Ladki; editing by Robin Pomeroy

Ethiopian Airline Pilot Ignored Control Tower Commands: Lebanon Ministers

1/26/2010 5:39 AM ET

(RTTNews) - Lebanon’s Transportation Minister says the pilot of the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines jet did not fly in the direction recommended by the airport control tower before it plunged into the Mediterranean on Monday minutes after take-off in heavy rains and storms from Beirut.

Ghazi Aridi said Tuesday the tower “asked him to correct, but then he did a very fast and strange turn” before disappearing from the radar. He was unable to say why that happened or whether it was beyond the pilot’s control.

Confirming Aridi’s statement, Defense Minister Elias Murr said a command tower recording showed the control tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction.

As is customary with all airliners, the Boeing 737 also is equipped with its own on-board weather radar which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into the storm.

Officials have ruled out foul play and have almost given up hopes of anyone being found alive. Lebanese rescue teams have recovered 34 bodies from the wreckage of the airliner more than 24 hours after the crash. Searchers are trying to find the plane’s black box and flight data recorder.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 carrying 83 passengers and seven crew lost contact with the airport control tower shortly after take-off at 2:27 a.m. (0027 GMT) and crashed into the Mediterranean around 2:30 a.m. (0030 GMT).

The passengers included 54 Lebanese nationals, 22 Ethiopians, two British-Lebanese, an Iraqi, a Syrian, a Lebanese-Canadian and a Russian-Lebanese. Marla Pietton, wife of French ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietto, was among those on board.

Both Ethiopia and Lebanon have declared a national day of mourning in memory of the dead.

by RTT Staff Writer

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