New information into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines (ET) Flight 409 has emerged. On Tuesday, January 26, Lebanon's transportation minister, Ghazi Aridi, said that the pilot flew in the opposite direction than directed by the Beirut control tower after taking off.
According to Mr Aridi, "The tower asked him to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar."
CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) Lebanese Red Cross workers place body of crash victim in ambulance (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein); (BELOW RIGHT TOP) Map showing planned route between Beirut and Addis Ababa (Photo Credit - Google Maps); (BELOW LEFT) A Lebanese marine commando carries part of the wing from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea near Beirut (AP Photo/Hussein Malla); (BELOW RIGHT BOTTOM) Lebanese president Michel Sleiman (Photo Credit - Government of Lebanon)
Three videos and a slide show follow this article on the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy.
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The Boeing 737-800 carrying 82 passengers and a crew of 8 was airborne for less than 6 minutes when it disappeared for radar. Witnesses reported seeing a fireball, as the aircraft broke apart into several pieces and plunged into the Mediterranean Sea about 3.8 miles (6 kilometers) off shore. Everyone onboard perished.
The aircraft had taken off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport (BEY) on Monday, January 25, at about 2:30 a.m. local time, during lightening and thunderstorms. It was headed for the Ethiopean capital of Addis Ababa, some 1,720 miles (2,768 km) to the South.
All Boeing 737 aircraft are equipped with weather radar, which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into thunderheads. It is yet not clear if he was trying to take evasive action, which the Lebanese transportation minister described as "a very fast and strange turn."
Few details have been released about the pilot. Ethiopian Airlines said late Monday that he had more than 20 years of experience, but did not provide specifics on hours or equipment flown.
The aircraft's flight data and voice recorders have not yet been found. Al Jazeera news network, based in Qatar, reported that emergency workers have retrieved at least 35 bodies of Lebanese and Ethiopian
victims from the sea. There were no U.S. citizens on the flight. Persons from other nations included two from Britain, and those from France, Russia, Syria, and Canada. Michel Sleiman, the Lebanese president, said he did not think the plane had been brought down deliberately, stressing that "a sabotage attack is unlikely."
According to Tobias Rueckerl, an aviation consultant, "Ethiopian Airlines is one of the better African airlines. They have a comparably young fleet of aircraft, they have very well trained people, they are following near European standards. So I would count them as a safe airline basically."
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Government of Lebanon is heading the investigation into the crash, and are being assisted by the U.S. NTSB, the FAA, and Boeing. According to the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), which keeps detailed incident records, the accident was the seventh loss of a Boeing 737-800.
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Comments
Thank you for the thorough reporting, photos and videos. I always trust your info to be up to date. It seems like the plot thickens in this case...
How bizarre. Thanks for this important updated info.
Very informative article about a sad accident. Ethiopian is one of the most reliable airlines in Africa so there must have been some awful weather he was trying to avoid. Excellent report.
Sounds very suspicious. Look forward to more reports about this sad incident.
This is sad and weird!
Wow...that is just...wow. Great coverage, Joel.
Good work the Ethiopian airline have been the most reliable, of course my favorite, African airline. Probably the thunder is the main cause that obliged the pilot to change course
So sad. I hope that they figure out what went wrong.
Great read, Joel..and the article is, per norm, well - supported with photos / slide shows, and videos.
Cheers...
This is getting ridiculous. First the weather was bad bla bla bla and now he 'took a strange turn'contrary to what he's been advised??? A pilot with 20 years experience?? they have been trying to cover up ever since the accident happened. besides it's also illegal for an official to come up with and state such allegations before all the data is collected and examined.
It is know that the Air Traffic Controller let the plane into the very bad weather condition, tender storm with continuous and heavy lightening. Many suggest that the plane may be already in the strong tender storm while receiving the message from the ATC.
The AT controller is too late to tell to the pilot of the ascending plane to change its direction. So, what can the pilot do with guidance out of time?
Was it better to tell the pilot to change its direction away after letting him into a heavy tender storm or was it good to delay the takeoff for some times until the heave the heavy storm passes by? But it is also not clear whether the ATC told the pilot to change its direction ways from the storm or to the opposite.
Based on action we have seen it until now, it seems that the Lebanon officials are redirecting the causes and effects of the accident and blame the dead pilots of that poor country starting from the second day. In the first day, they told us the cause was a bad w
In the first day, they told us the cause was a bad weather condition. So, we did not expect a fair and different result from examination of data recorder, different from what the officials had been telling us so far. This is mainly because the Lebanese officials, who are the main examiners of the data are already concluded the causes of the accident. The Ethiopians dose not have the technical capability, the situational accesses, the instrument, the know how to interpret the data into meaningful information…etc in the process of conducting the examination. So, what the poor Christian Ethiopians has to do is wait truth from their Christian God. According to their Christian faith, always GOD see in everywhere, what had already happened, has happened and will happen.
I just noticed your slideshow (not sure how I missed it before). Fantastic photos.
Great photos in the slide show!
Will be interesting to find out the real cause of this tragedy...just very sad though.
Hmmm... Seems more and more suspicious. A cover up, perhaps? Or was it just the weather he was trying to avoid? Like everyone commenting here, I hope they can find out the truth.
I am just tired of the speculations. I just want to know what really happened. What the hale is wrong with the Lebanese authorities? And please don't you dare blame the Ethiopian Pilot because we all know that it wasn't his fault. Because Ethiopia has the best trained pilots ever. Every since the accident happened, we have been told so many lies... But why??? Cut the chess. Tell us what really happened so that we, Ethiopians, grieve peacefully. What happened happened for a reason and God knows what but why do you keep on making up stories and at this point you are making your self fools. We lost people... lives... do you understand what I am saying.... We lost our people and you don't even have the decency to tell us what happened???
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