Early speculations on plane crash cause misleading -Ethiopia

By Tesfa Alem Tekle

January 26, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopian Airlines, whose Boing Co. 737 crashed into the Mediterranean sea with 90 people on board, said that the cause for the plane crash is under firm investigation and any early conclusions coming out on the cause are wrong.

Ethiopian Airlines officials earlier today told Sudan Tribune that the next few days will only tell the prime cause of the crash and other speculations being given shall not be considered as final outcomes of the ongoing investigation.

According to the airlines officials, with the flight data recorder and black box still missing, no one can exactly tell the cause that downed the passenger jet.

However the officials said that scanning equipment, which could identify location of the black box, is brought to the accident scene and the next 22-72 hours will reveal the real cause of the crash.

Ethiopia has sent a 14-member investigative team to probe the incident.

Although hopes of finding survivors have dimmed over 24 hours after the crash, crews from several countries including from the US and the UK have continued search and rescue efforts. There is no word of survivors yet.

In a statement, the Ethiopian airlines today however said that 24 bodies had been recovered. At least six of the bodies recovered were of Ethiopians.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 was seen on fire as it plunged into the Mediterranean Sea early Monday, just a few minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport in stormy weather.

It was reported that a Beirut air traffic control was guiding the Ethiopian flight through the thunderstorms for the first 2-3 minutes of its flight before it went missing from radar screens.

However for many, it remains vague whether it was a standard procedure for Lebanese controllers to assist airliners departing from the airport in poor weather conditions.

Ethiopian Airlines said late Monday that the pilot had more than 20 years of experience. It did not give the pilot’s name or details of other aircraft the pilot had flown. It said the recovered bodies included those of Ethiopians and Lebanese.

The Ethiopian carrier which took off in stormy weather was carrying 51 Lebanese and 23 Ethiopians, the airline said on its website. The eight crew were all Ethiopian. The plane was also carrying two Britons and one person each from Turkey, France, Russia, Canada, Syria and Iraq, the airline said.

The state-owned carrier flies to 56 destinations operating with only Boeing aircrafts. This is the first crash since 1996, when a hijacked plane ditched into the sea off Comoros after running out of fuel.

The Ethiopian airline is among the fastest growing airlines in Africa. It sweeps a number of international awards every year. Its good safety record is considered as an exception among African airlines.

With the outstanding reputation it kept for over 10 years in a row, many Ethiopians told Sudan Tribune that they had found it hard at first to believe that an Ethiopian plane has actually gone down.

(ST)