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Ethiopian airliner crashes in Mediterranean Sea
Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:51:44 GMT


An Ethiopian Airliner with 92 passengers and crew on board has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut airport in Lebanon.

Aviation sources said flight 409 was heading for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa when it crashed at 2:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) on Monday.

According to Lebanon's Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi, the Boeing 737-800 disappeared from radar screens only five minutes after takeoff amid heavy rains and storms, and crashed into the sea about 12km (7 miles) south of the Rafiq Hariri airport.

Witnesses who live near the coast have reported seeing a ball of fire as the airliner plunged into the sea.

The passengers include 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, a French woman, a Syrian and seven crew members.

Several dual nationals including two British-Lebanese, one Canadian-Lebanese and a Russian-Lebanese were also on board the jet, Aridi added.

The French woman has been identified as the wife of France's ambassador to Lebanon, AFP reported airport officials as saying.

Rescue efforts to save possible survivors have been launched.

"We have contacted everyone, inside and outside the country, that can assist us and the Lebanese navy, the army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have joined in the rescue," the minister said.

The Boeing 737-800, which entered into commercial service in 1998, is one of the latest versions of the world's most widely used short to medium-haul airliners, and is capable of carrying up to 189 passengers.

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Wreckage: A doll lies amid the debris of the Ethiopian airliner on the shores of the Lebanese town of Khaldeh


Poignant: An airplane takes off as Lebanese soldiers gather debris on the shore from the lost aircraft


Passenger: Marla Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, Denis Pietton, was onboard


Distraught: Relatives of passengers on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight are told their loved ones are dead

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A Lebanese commando pulls a body from the water into a helicopter above the area where the plane crashed

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Lebanese people look out over the sea where an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the sea near Beirut airport, Lebanon, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010. The aircraft, carrying 90 people, caught fire and crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut early Monday, setting off a frantic search as rain lashed the coast and debris washed ashore.




A civil defense worker holds a part from the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea at the shore near Beirut airport, Lebanon, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010


Lebanese soldiers gather debris washed ashore

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Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri steps down the helicopter after flying over the site

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Ethiopian religious leaders leave Bole International airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010 after consoling relatives of the passengers.


Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri (centre L) and Lebanon's Army commander Jean Kahwaji (centre R) arrive at Beirut international airport to take a tour by helicopter over the site where an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed


Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri looks through a helicopter's window at the site where an Ethiopian Airlines plane, crashed into the Mediterranean sea




A Lebanese navy vessel searches for survivors

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A U.S C-17 Globemaster III transport plane takes off as Lebanese soldiers gather debris


A woman shows a picture of her relatives who were aboard on the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines plane


Lebanese Red Cross workers carry the body of a victim

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A Lebanese soldier from the medical contingent stands on an ambulance carrying a body from an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed into the Mediterranean sea on Monday morning, upon arrival at a hospital in Beirut January 25, 2010.


Marla Pietton poses with her husband Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to Lebanon, in Beirut, in this file photo taken December 14, 2009. Marla Pietton was among the passengers on the Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed into the Mediterranean sea on January 25, 2010


Victims' relatives




Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, right, comforts a woman relative..


Red Cross workers attend to a grieving man..

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Bump thread...

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Lebanon minister: Pilot in crash flew opposite way


BEIRUT – Lebanon's transportation minister says the pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines jet did not fly in the direction recommended by the Beirut control tower before the fatal crash.
Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the tower "asked him to correct, but then he did a very fast and strange turn."
He says it's not clear why that happened or whether it was beyond the pilot's control
Like most other airliners, the Boeing 737 also is equipped with its own onboard weather radar which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into the storm cells.
No survivors had been found more than 24 hours after the crash. Searchers are trying to find the plane's black box and flight data recorder.





Lebanese military vessel scans the crash site of an Ethiopian airliner off the shores of the Lebanese town of Khaldeh, south of Beirut. Rescuers found bodies but no survivors.