Ethiopian Airlines crashed on Take off from Beirut

[delta092b]

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

[kc135dood]

....abundant prayers.

[joeyb747]

Very sad...

"An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration ET-ANB performing flight ET-409 from Beirut (Lebanon) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) with 82 passengers and 8 crew, departed Beirut's runway 21 around 2:35L (00:35Z) when the airplane lost height and impacted the Mediterranean Sea about 2nm off the coast of Naameh and about 4nm southsouthwest of the airport."

"A thunderstorm system was moving into Lebanon at the time. Airport Officials confirmed, the airplane was taking off in stormy weather, and continued, that the airplane has been hit by lightning.

Witnesses on the ground at Naameh reported having seen the airplane being hit by multiple lightnings.

Aviation sources in Beirut said, that the airplane had reached about 8000 feet of altitude, when the crew requested to turn around a thunderstorm cell just before radio contact was lost."

Metars:
OLBA 250300Z 06004KT 030V090 5000 TSSHRA FEW020CB BKN026 10/06 Q1014 NOSIG
OLBA 250200Z 12006KT 8000 VCTS FEW020CB BKN026 11/06 Q1014 NOSIG
OLBA 250100Z VRB03KT 4000 SHRA FEW020CB BKN026 12/07 Q1014 NOSIG
OLBA 250000Z 31008KT 280V340 8000 VCTS FEW020CB SCT026 13/06 Q1014 NOSIG
OLBA 242300Z 32011KT 300V360 8000 FEW020CB SCT026 14/07 Q1014 NOSIG
OLBA 242200Z 32016KT 7000 FEW020CB SCT026 FEW070 14/07 Q1014 NOSIG
OLBA 242100Z 32013KT 5000 TSGR FEW020CB BKN026 13/08 Q1013 NOSIG

From:

http://avherald.com/h?article=4264b8d5&opt=1

Below is the airplane involved:

[joeyb747]

Looks like no survivors...

"By the afternoon, crews had found 21 bodies but no survivors, a Lebanese military spokesman said."

From CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/01/25/ethiopian.airliner.crash/index.html

[delta092b]

I read an unconfirmed report that ATC gave instructions for the a/c to make a turn to avoid weather but the aircraft turned in the opposite direction and then contact was lost a short time later. Again, it's unconfirmed.

Lebanon’s Defense Minister Elias el Murr said:
“A command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction,” Mr Murr said in a television interview.


Very sad, I hope they recover the boxes quickly.

[joeyb747]

Truly sad...

Fire is mentioned here in this article...I hadn't heard any mention of fire until I came across this from The Washington Post:

"BEIRUT (Reuters) - All 90 people aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane were feared dead after it plunged into the Mediterranean in a ball of fire, minutes after taking off from Beirut in a raging thunderstorm on Monday.

More than 16 hours after the crash and with night falling, authorities downplayed hopes of finding survivors and search efforts focused on recovering the remains of passengers still strapped to their seats and the black box flight recorders.

Flight ET409, a Boeing 737-800, heading for Addis Ababa, disappeared off the radar five minutes after taking off at 2:37 a.m. (7:37 p.m. ET).

The Lebanese army said the plane had broken up in the air before plummeting into rough seas. One witness described the impact as a "flash that lit up the whole sea.""

From:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012500312.html?waporef=obinsite

[joeyb747]

I read an unconfirmed report that ATC gave instructions for the a/c to make a turn to avoid weather but the aircraft turned in the opposite direction and then contact was lost a short time later. Again, it's unconfirmed.

That theory may be right on par...

"Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi revealed that the plane flew in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the control tower after taking off in stormy weather.

He said the pilot initially followed the tower's guidance, but then abruptly changed course and went in the opposite direction.

"They asked him to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar," Aridi told The Associated Press.

"Nobody is saying the pilot is to blame for not heeding orders," Aridi said, adding: "There could have been many reasons for what happened. ... Only the black box can tell.""

From:

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20100125/Lebanon.Plane.Crash/

[joeyb747]

USNS Grapple to aide in recovery efforts:

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67608

Below is a pic of the recovery/rescue vessel:

[Saabeba]

The pilot had 20 years experience.  Ethiopian airlines was founded in 1945, and managed and flown by Ethiopian personnel exclusively since 1971.  The airline is noted for its professionalism (it has a long history with the Boeing Company) and is a regional center for maintenance and training for other airlines.

I find it odd that the plane came down on fire even if hit by lightning. 

The black boxes having been found is good news.

May all rest in peace.

[joeyb747]

Perhaps some good news...at least they are one step closer to figuring the cause of this tragedy out...

"BEIRUT (Reuters) – A U.S. navy vessel located on Wednesday the flight recorders from an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed off the coast of Lebanon two days ago with 90 people aboard, a security official said.

"The U.S. ship located the black boxes 1,300 metres underwater and 8 km west of Beirut airport," the security official told Reuters, adding that search teams now had to assess the best way to retrieve the recorders."

Form:

http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/12357

[iflyhi]

ok.,  so the boxes have found.  but have they been retrived ?  it seems any news of this tragic accident is very scetchy.  anyone know where the info has been released ? 

[Saabeba]

The black boxes have been retrieved and will be sent to France for analysis.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6160HJ20100207

[Saabeba]

"Ethiopian Airlines does not rule out all possible causes including the possibility of sabotage until the final outcome of the investigation is known," the company said in a statement.

[Saabeba]

British intelligence agents have reopened their investigation into the mysterious crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet last February after a terror suspect taken into custody in Saudi Arabia confessed it was bombed, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The information came after the mass arrest of more than 100 al-Qaida terror suspects in the Middle East.

The Boeing 737-8 plunged into the Mediterranean shortly after takeoff from Lebanon, killing all 92 passengers on board. Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri blamed pilot error.

But one of the al-Qaida operatives held in a high-security prison in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, has told his British-trained interrogators that the aircraft was destroyed by an al-Qaida suicide bomber trained in a Yemeni training camp.

Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden's family. The operative said the Beirut bomber trained in the same Yemeni camp as Christmas Day underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Source: WND.COM