Night flights to Ethiopia’s main airport to resume after crash

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, June 21, 2005 (AP) — Night flights to Ethiopia’s international airport were expected to resume Tuesday after they were halted because of the crash-landing of a cargo plane over the weekend, an official said.

Investigators are examining the wreckage of a Boeing 707 that crashed on Sunday as it was landing at Bole International Airport in the capital, Addis Ababa, said Adawork Regassa, the Civil Aviation Authority’s acting head of flight safety.

The crash forced authorities to close one runway.

“We expect night flights to resume this evening, but we are still trying to get the plane off the runway,” said Solomon Emer, the general manager of Ethiopian Airport Enterprise, a government company that runs the airport.

Adawork said that preliminary investigations found that there was a fault with the plane’s landing gear. Officials said that it was leased by Ethiopian Airlines but did not have any other details.

Ethiopian Airlines officials were not immediately available for comment.

None of the five crew members was injured and there were no passengers on board, said Solomon.

Adawork said that this was the first time in 12 years there had been a plane crash at the airport.