The Airlines/Airport Examiner has received exclusive information confirmed by four separate sources and reported by a Swedish journalist for the Lebanese Arabic language newspaper Al-Akhbar that a second aircraft on final approach to landing at Beirut may have played a role in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET409 on January 25, 2010.
Statements made anonymously by Lebanese airport sources report that Captain Habtamu Benti, the pilot in command (PIC) of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 encountered engine problems, perhaps a flame out, during takeoff, and requested permission to abort the flight and return to Beirut. He was given clearance to do so, but another aircraft, a Etihad Airlines flight from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates was in the process of landing and could have interfered with his emergency maneuvers. Exactly what happened under this scenario is as yet unknown.
CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) An Ethiopian woman, a friend of passengers of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea on January 25, holds candle at Rafik Hariri University Hospital as the Ethiopian consulate receive the recovered bodies of five nationals who were killed in the plane, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday Feb. 13, 2010 (AP Photo/Hussein Malla); (BELOW RIGHT) Women mourn their relatives who died in Monday's Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crash, outside Rafik Hariri Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, January 26, 2010 (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein); (BELOW LEFT) Cockpit Voice Recorder from archive files (Wikipedia/NTSB);
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There may have been miscommunication in vectoring both aircraft, possible oversights by flight controllers, or other circumstances that are still to be determined. What is clear is that the issue of blame has nothing to do with national pride or skin complexion, but rather with the color of money. Maneuvering and spin control by the Government of Lebanon appear based on issues of liability for the crash, and subsequent financial responsibility and payment to the families of the victims.
Also on Monday, February 15, Lebanese marine commandos have recovered a critical missing part of the cockpit voice recorder from Ethiopian Airlines flight ET409. The Boeing 737-800 crashed five minutes after taking off from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY) on January 25. All 90 persons aboard perished.
The missing component, the recorder's solid state memory drum, was found close to where the aircraft's other black box, the flight data recorder, was located in about 150 feet (45 meters) of water off the coastal village of Naameh, south of Beirut. It was turned over to BEA, the French government agency in charge of the technical analysis of the crash.
The Government of Lebanon Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi announced this news at a media conference yesterday.
Whatever develops, there's much more information that is starting to unravel and reveal itself. We will continue to update this story. Our heartfelt appreciation go out to our many readers around the world for their encouragement and assistance.
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Comments
Fantastic coverage, Joel. Great facts with a compelling voice. Keep up the fantastic work.
arabs always commit horible and dirty mistakes, shame on them!
why these people are giving a very controversial and conflicted information to us. I don't really believe that Kuran says "kill people".
Finally truth starting to come out. I knew something is up when the Lebanese officials are ruling out sabotage early on before any investigation was started. On top of that they were making conflicting statements like 'pilot error' when there was no conclusive investigation done which is against the international aviation rule. Now I'm strongly believing that the Lebanese officials were trying to hide something they know that could held them responsible. It could be negligence on the traffic controllers part, or could be an explosive, who knows... but somethings is UP
The author is only adding to the confusion of the Lebanese government by publishing bizarre theories. Anyone with basic understanding of departure and emergency procedures for airplanes will laugh at the whole report.
Excellent coverage and article Joel. This is getting curiouser and curiouser.
This is a great synopsis of the delusional news we have been hearing. What made the initial blame game bizarre is, with out following proper investigative protocol, there were lots of conclusions were made. The pilot error, sabotage, technical problem etc.
Good reporting, keep peeling the dirt … something is UP!
It would have been surprising for me if you reported this before the voice recorder was retrived. why you became so late to report this news. Now every thing has been discovered and the cause of the accident will be known for sure. It is good report but not timly and I see some hypocracy and secrecy
Well described and written but i am not surprised by this report because they know something was wrong from the beginning and trying to hide it and blame it on someone before the black box was recovered Thanks Joel Keep Up The Good Work .
Joel,
I think you're referring to Eithad Airways (not Airlines) Flight EY 533. See today's Beirut arrival info below (beirutairport.gov.lb). Your theory may be a stretch but plausible...Flight EY533 is normally scheduled to arrive at 3:10am but may have a tendency to arrive earlier (2:20 AM like today) which is about 10 minutes after ET 409 reportedly departed on Jan 25.
BEIRUT AIRPORT
ARRIVALS
WED FEBRUARY 17,2010
TIME
FLIGHT
CITY
AIRPORT NAME
VIA
BELT
STATUS
E/AT ARR
03:10AM EY 533 ABU DHAB... ABU DHABI INT... 3 Arrived 02:21AM
thanks for starting to expose the truth keep on going
Pls. Let's hear the truth from the flight records.
Let us have the truth. The Lebanese government was quick to blame Ethiopian Airlines. Perhaps it was Lebanese security or Lebanese traffic control that caused the problem. It is easy to blame a poor African country like Ethiopia. The poor are always easy scapegoats.
really its very shame for lebanose govt, still there is something secret we will hear after the final investigation hope fully the investigator address to us the genuine cause of accident
Keep up on exploring the truth....still i believe there are hiden informations....
This is pretty much satisfactory speculation, as compaared to the previous stories.Shame on the air trafics.
The News is not bad, if it is genuine the ground technicians and air port authoriteis of Lebanon has made grave mistake not giving priority to emergency landing.
To the actions of the Lebanese officials thus far make them appear to be restless. Why on earth start rumors. Ethiopia sent its foreign affairs official to discuss this. Do not spread speculation but the Lebanese continued to do so. Fishy very Fishy.
WE ETHIOPIANS OFCOURSE POOR BY MONEY BUT NOT BY MENTALITY WE HAVE OUR OWN GOOD EXCELLENT MORALITY & PERSONALITY. shame on lebanese government God knows everything but why those innocent people killing, they say pilot error but not that is the reason everybody knows the truth. we will waiting the truth RIP ALL THE VICTIMS!!!
It's touchy moment to all ethiopians. we proud our ethiopian airline. yes we belive it's not pilor error or ethiopian airlines error this only that TERRORIST ATTACK OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. but why you call the innocent pilot name badly. shame on you lebanese government. i hate this country b/c killing our brothers and sisters. YOU KILL NOT 23 OR 25 ETHIOPIANS KILLING ALL OF US!!!!
Shame on Arabs, we lost our beloved brothers and sisters in your country, why are you Arabs always deceive us? we Ethiopians are proud of our airline, its really new spirit of Africa. So you have to know we have our own talent, moral, humanity... than that of all Arabs.
I am getting more curious about the story unravelling. To err is human but it is very unlikely that the pilot errs this time. The strange thing is that the lebanese authorities went into blame game early even before the black boxes were found.We are always proud of ET. Go ET in colors. We will support you. With order of 45 new planes, the sky is again for ET. Thank u Joel! U let us know more.
It's touchy moment to all ethiopians. we proud our ethiopian airline. yes we belive it's not pilor error or ethiopian airlines error this only that TERRORIST ATTACK OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. but why you call the innocent pilot name badly. shame on you lebanese government. i hate this country b/c killing our brothers and sisters. YOU KILL NOT 23 OR 25 ETHIOPIANS KILLING ALL OF US!!!!
It's touchy moment to all ethiopians. we proud our ethiopian airline. yes we belive it's not pilor error or ethiopian airlines error this only that TERRORIST ATTACK OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. but why you call the innocent pilot name badly. shame on you lebanese government. i hate this country b/c killing our brothers and sisters. YOU KILL NOT 23 OR 25 ETHIOPIANS KILLING ALL OF US!!!!
WE PROUD OUR ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES GO ET !!! R I P to our beloved sisters and brothers !!!!
we Ethiopians are we know what we have to do. specially Arbians country we know you very wel what are you doing in our country and people, no one can not blame about our Greet air-lines, I want to pass my deep feeling about our pilot and people.
Ethiopian airlines going strong !!!
God Bless ETHIOPIA !!
dawdo from switzerland
I do not know why we think that there is no one out there who knows what's going on. No one can hide from God's eyes. Yes, we humans always think and also believe that we can hide what ever we want. One day every thing will come out to the open. I feel really soooooooory for all the people who died on the crash. But I believe that it was not the Captains fault. We Ethiopians are not dummies, we know what's going on. Right now we know there is something going on. But don't forget, GOD IS ALWAYS WATCHING!
Excellent reporting.
Keep it up - great job. Whatever turns out to be the cause of this unfortunate tragedy, the behavior of the Lebanese officials, especially transportation Minister, has been despicable.
Joel
Keep it up - great job. Whatever turns out to be the cause of this unfortunate tragedy, the behavior of the Lebanese officials, especially transportation Minister, has been despicable.
Wow u ethopieans r prejudice.....We wouldnt have u in our country ---LEBANON--- working if we are prejudice like u are...also dont 4get, it wasnt ONLY ur people who died...our beloved lebanese did to
This is in reply to the first comment (Nana). I don't think Ethiopians are prejudice. I think Lebanese people are irresponsible. Probably the lebanese airport controller knew upfront that they have made a mistake in miscommunication and causes this crash. So, what is the best defence is offence. BLAME THE PILOT FIRST. You know, truth will always come out. And please do not be surprise if there are more truths coming out again.
Nana,
We are not prejudicing. Your (lebanese) Authorities are the once who came out saying things like pointing fingers on the pilot. They didn't even give a chance for the investigaiton to take place. Look, It could well be Pilots error. But you have to agree wwith me when I say let's just wait for investigation.
As to you welcoming Ethiopians, let's not go there. You know better than that. That by itself should have it's own topic.
Answer to Flinstone and Nana: It is surpriizing to read your comments. U talked about Ethiopian people and about Lebanese people. how u think like that. How your mind(both of u) think to relate the incident to the people of Ethiopia or to the people of Lebanon. Ok, it it may sound good if u talk about spesific problem related to the case or a behaviour related to one person. Both of U are so stupid and doesnt represent either of the two countries. u are both blind, u dont have good understanding. Shame on u both, shame on u others who wrote similar negativity. u bastards!!!!!!!!!!
It is becoming clear that there is something at the back of this crash. From the very beginning the Lebanese, with no tangible evidence, preferred to blame the pilot.Then the health minister says it was an explosion. The other minister ruled out explosion. Some days before, the Lebanese officials again said that there was no technical error , today reports are telling us that the air craft was having engine problem. Anyways there is something fishy.
I know, U dont have answers for this. shutup your open mouth!!!!!
Mark,
What would be your expert opinion, then? First of all, I do not represent any of the two countries because I am not an Ethiopian nor Lebanese. Isn't it in this article, mentioned that it could be the Airport Control miscommunication? So in this incident, it is the Lebanese. It could be British, Canadian, any nationality. I do not care what nationality they are. To me, if someone made a mistake, admit their mistake and apologize. Instead of blah blah their mouth, and pointing fingers to other people before making sure they are not the one at fault, first.
Growing up, I admired Lebanon as a country and I use to hear about Michael Own and how brave that guy was and I used to think highly of the lebanese officials. Alas, this story exposed several misconception we had about the country. The leadership is filled with bigots and unprofessionals who rush to judgment and spread falsehood purposely. The truth will come out and they have to realize that they are loosing a ally with Ethiopia.
I see people here portraying nationalist feeling and trying to defend their country emotionally. I think the right thing to do is to wait for the official investigation to be completed and published. It's obvious that the Lebanese officials made unnecessary mistake by suggesting or concluding a pilot error before any types of investigation started. Despite the unnecessary behavior the Lebanese officials displayed in the wake of the accident all Lebanese should not be blamed. There are a lot of good people in Lebanon.
Folks, I am not sure what good it does to blame one another. What we know is that 90 human lives were lost. These are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. Sooner or later the truth will come out and even then knowing the truth does not give us license to perpetuate the blame or the hate. We should use it to learn so we can avoid such terrible outcome. I will leave you with John Lennon Imagine…
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
I don't think Enda and Habeshawit are Ethiopians. I know Ethiopians. they are a dissent people with good heart. Ethiopians don't say such an ugly words. and I know lebanse are good people too (except the Lebanese Authorities who were trying to mislead by starting a blame game)I think those are people who will like to put gas on the fire. cool down people. let us pry for the 90 innocent people who dead with whoever's fault.
People here that are lashing out at the Lebanese government need to get their facts straight. They did NOT say that pilot error is the cause. They said the control tower in Beirut instructed the pilot to turn one direction, but the plane did not respond to those directions. Whether this is due to pilot error or due to something of the control of the pilot is the question here. Nobody except some media outlets have stated pilot error, not any official Lebanese government statement.
No question that these lives sot will not go down without a purpose. For one thing, it has brought the issue of prejudice to the surface, for years now, Ethiopians working in Lebanon have been abused, murdered, burned, raped, and no one has been doing anything to rescue them. God is patient.But it cannot go on forever. How can any family enjoy comfort at the expense of a human life in the 21st century.Respect human rights, grow up
We are not that the Arab & western countries assumed us Ethiopian is the poorest country of the world we know that but WE HAVE OUR OWN CULTURE, RELIGION, ETHICS, DIGNITY, if we hungry we are not eat like dog, donkey, snake, rat, ……….. Nooooooooooooooo! b/c we are full of self-respect and proud of our culture we r not such a poor people that u assumed. Come and visit us we’ll show you our curtsy!!!!!!
GO ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Nebil, Your comments sounded like those of the Lebanese official's. Maybe it is your responsibility/duty to cover up for their mistakes - or maybe it's your opinion. Trying to blame the matter on a pilot who can't defend himself anymore was the first silly political game attempted by the authorities. And, it would be more sillier trying to defend them! The minsters are still giving tones of contradicting statements out there forcing us to look into other possibilities for the accident.
The so called "missing" component of the CVR (voice recorder) looks the most interesting pieces of the puzzle. This device is designed to survive the worst imaginable crush environment. And an interest by Lebanese authorities to tap information out of it before anyone else could be the reason behind its disappearance for a few days. For reference read the DESIGN section of an article on Wikipedia (Flight_data_recorder) about the CRV. specifications.
I am an Ethiopian. I got relatives( women) working in lebanon. I don't understand why people are judging the lebanese to be bad people. All lebanese are not bad. there are some who abuse their maids extremely. but not all. Even in Ethiopia we most people have maids. These maids are also abused by their masters and madams. So what the fuss!!! Wake up guys. Bad and good people everywhere.
Mercy to all people in the world!!!
From the outset of the accident, some of the Lebanese government officials were ruled out sabotage, blaming the bad weather when they were asked to prove how the bad weather was responsible? Their technical deficiency led them to shift the blame on the person who could not defend himself, the dead pilot. Now blame shifted to a plane which had been on the process of landing what and who will be the next party to be blamed GOD knows.
Innocent civilians are dead on this accident most of whom are Lebanese; however the way some of these officials handled the matter might led to a suspicion that they know something prior to the crash of the plane.
Lebanese and Ethiopian security officials have to exhaust all kinds of investigation to reach agreement identifying out the cause of the crash.
The ET-409 crash happened on the eve of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa & on the day of pastorals not only that day after the collapse of Gilgel Gibe II dam.
Soon after the crash Lebanese prem
I think it's important that we remain calm and rational.I understand how most of you feel. It's very tempting for me to get all emotional and throw rationality and logic out the window. I personally know some of the people who were on board that flight. Let's not forget that the Lebanese people are also victims in this accident. We're all brothers and sisters. Let's face the fact the Lebanese authorities are incompetent and have been acting irresponsibly. I know that the Lebanese govt has gone through some rough times and I sympathies with them. However they should stop playing blame games and get ready to assume responsibility if the outcome of the investigation points to them. I also suspect that they have been tampering with evidence (The 2 black Boxes). I have read the article above. This can be true or it can also be a desperate attempt to divert attention from what actually happened that night. This may sound less of a scandal, than sabotage. Let's just not draw any conclusions.
I have to say the Lebanese officials are the most corrupt irrational idiots. They ruled out many things even before the investigation started just hours after the crash with out having a single evidence to how for their conclusion. There are people saying that this was an act of terror by hisbola to target the wife of the french ambassador and two others who changed their plans at the last minute. This is starting to look more and more like an act of terror. I dont trust what the barbaric Lebanese officials say and no rational person will.
I am very much interested in your investigation work. Continue & find the truth on behalf of the dead.
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