From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Sun Jan 24 2010 - 23:01:53 EST
January 25, 2010
Ethiopian Airliner Crashes Near Beirut
By DERRICK HENRY
An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday
morning shortly after it took off from Beirut International Airport in
stormy weather. News reports said that 83 passengers and 9 crew members were
on board.
A woman who answered the phone at the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority said
that the plane, which was headed for Addis Ababa, crashed after it took off
at about 2:30 a.m. Beirut time.
“Yes, the plane crashed into the sea off Lebanon,” said the woman, who
declined to give her name.
A Lebanese aviation official told The Associated Press that the plane
disappeared off the radar 45 minutes after takeoff from Beirut.
Ethiopian Airlines flight 409 – a Boeing 737 – was scheduled to take off at
2:10 a.m., according to the company’s Web site. The airline did not
immediately respond to calls and e-mail messages.
Although African airlines in general have a shaky safety record, Ethiopian
Airlines has a relatively good history. But one of its planes was involved
in a 1996 hijacking in which the it ran out of fuel and crashed into the
sea.
A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines would not comment on the fate of the
plane.
Reuters reported that residents on the coast saw a plane on fire crashing.
Flight safety records indicate that there has not been a crash involving
Beirut International Airport since 1987.
While Flight 409 had been scheduled to leave the airport at 2:10 a.m. Beirut
time, it actually left at 2:30 a.m. The 1,730-mile flight to Addis Ababa was
scheduled to take 4 hours and 40 minutes.
The Boeing 737 is one of the most widely used planes in the world and while
it has a fine overall safety record, it has been involved in a few crashes
in Europe and Africa in recent years. There have been questions about the
plane’s rudders, notably in a crash near Pittsburgh in which a plane
inexplicable fell out of the sky at about 8,000 feet.
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