CNN Brealing News: Ethiopian airliner lost from radar, believed down off Lebanon

[Dennis Donovan]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- An Ethiopian airliner with 92 people on board disappeared from radar and is believed to have crashed shortly after takeoff from Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

The Boeing aircraft was en route to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when it disappeared from radar 30 minutes after takeoff from Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, NNA reported. The plane is believed to have been over water at the time of its disappearance, the news agency said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/01/24/ethiopian.airliner.crash/index.html?hpt=T1

[aquart]

1. This is never good.

[jberryhill]

2. Update: NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/world/middleeast/25crash.html

Ethiopian Airlines flight 409 – a Boeing 737 – had been scheduled to take off at 2:10 a.m., according to the company’s Web site, but it actually left at 2:30 a.m., and in stormy weather.

[Turborama]

3. Ethiopian jet crashes off Beirut

Source: Al Jazeera English

=snip=

Contact was lost with the aircraft shortly after take-off early on Monday and witnesses reported seeing a ball of fire plunging into the sea off the coast.

The aircraft bound for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, is thought to have been carrying 85 passengers and up to seven crew.

Weather conditions in the area at the time were stormy. Lebanese officials have launched a search and rescue operation, but Al Jazeera's correspondent in Beirut, Rula Amin, said efforts were being hampered by strong winds and heavy rain.

UN peacekeepers based in Lebanon have joined the search.

Full article: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/20101252742591787.html

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Important story! K&R. Wow. This does not sound good at all...

My thoughts are with the passengers and crew... Hope the news is not as bad as is feared. ;(

[alfredo]

5. Ethiopian Airlines has a good reputation. I've flown them and was happy

with my travels with them.

Even during Ethiopia's darkest times, Ethiopian Airlines kept up quality and service.

I hope our worst fears are unfounded.

[jberryhill]

6. Fleet issues

One of the problems is that major carriers haven't had a whole lot of turnover in their fleets in the last few years, and the fleet average age has been increasing. This has a ripple effect on smaller carriers which purchase used aircraft from the majors.

[alfredo]

7. Doesn't it always boil down to money?

[jberryhill]

9. Yes and no

It's up to the manufacturers to rate the service life and maintenance schedules of the aircraft and its systems.

But one of the ways we learn about unforeseen age issues is by not foreseeing them.

What absolutely amazes me is how rare large aircraft crashes are. The safety of the industry as a whole is stunning.

[alfredo]

11. They've had a few decades to iron out the rough spot. Having a plane fall out

of the sky is not the best thing for an airline and manufacturer's image.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. Ethiopian Airlines is no junkyard queen

and they outsource much of their maintenance to western airlines such as Delta,

[jberryhill]

10. I didn't mean to imply that

I fly USAirways, and a good deal of their fleet is personally signed by Orville and Wilbur.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. CNN Update: Ethiopian airliner crashes off Lebanon; 90 on board

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- An Ethiopian airliner with 90 people aboard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Lebanon early Monday, authorities said.

The Lebanese army and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon were scouring the area off the Lebanese coast where the Boeing aircraft was thought to have gone down.

Rescue crews had not found the wreckage, said Ghazi El Aridi, Lebanon's minister of public works and transportation.

The Ethiopian Airlines flight left Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut at 2:27 a.m. and was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

It disappeared from radar a few minutes after takeoff, El Aridi said.

More: (Includes related stories and CNN Int'l news video)
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/01/25/ethiopian.airliner.crash/

[Kshasty]

13. Ninety people feared dead after Ethiopia airliner crash

Source: RIA Novosti

Ninety passengers and crew are feared dead after an Ethiopian airliner crashed off the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon shortly after takeoff in stormy weather in Beirut in the early hours of Monday.

The Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 737-800, which was en route to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, disappeared off the radar minutes after taking off, international media reported, citing airport officials.

It is not known what caused the crash. Police have ruled out a terrorist attack saying it was likely caused by poor weather. It had been raining heavily with lightning in Beirut on Sunday.

Helicopters and naval ships were reported to be searching the area. Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transportation Ghazi El Aridi said the authorities had requested help from U.N. peacekeepers and some neighboring countries, media reports said.

Lebanon's transport minister said the crash site has been identified.

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/world/20100125/157673964.html

[lostnfound]

14. I just woke up from a creepy dream about being in an airplane crash..

or not exactly a crash, but surely symbolic of one. Just 20 minutes ago. In the dream I was flying over water but the plane was very low in the sky, just a couple hundred feet perhaps, and it was getting late in the day, and there was a trail of low hanging dark stormclouds above, as far as the eye could see. I looked forward and saw that the clouds ahead surrounded a large rectangular black box, like a flat screen TV that was dark but turned on its end, like we were about to fly into a flat black piece of paper with perfectly sharp corners. The box was formed or framed by what appeared to be ice. Fear turned to terror in my dream as we actually flew into the black box and in that first second realized we were flying inside a black tunnel in the ice, with barely any room for the wings, and no way to know if there was a wall of ice in front of us into which we were about to collide. I woke up with my heart pounding, glad that there was a very dim light coming from the clock in the room, because it meant that it was only a dream.

I feel sorry to hear this. Peace to these people and any survivors.

[Ian David]

15. Your dream is about your fear of returning to your mother's womb. n/t

[Rhiannon12866]

16. Update: Bad weather likely brought down Ethiopia jet - official

An Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed into the sea off Beirut was probably brought down by bad weather, Lebanon's defence minister has said.

But Elias Murr said the cause of the crash could only be established after the flight recorders were recovered.

The Addis Ababa-bound flight plunged into the Mediterranean shortly after take-off from Beirut in a storm.

All 90 people on board the Boeing 737-800 are feared dead. At least 24 bodies have been pulled from the sea.

An air and sea search is continuing in the area.

'Flash in the sky'

"Bad weather was apparently the cause of the crash," Mr Murr told reporters at Beirut airport.

Lebanese PM Saad Hariri said everything was being done to find the missing
"We have ruled out foul play so far," he added.

Flight ET409 disappeared from radar screens some five minutes after take-off at about 0200 on Monday (0000 GMT), near the village of Naameh, about 3.5km (2 miles) from the coast.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8479868.stm

(Includes video of search and rescue operations continuing on rough seas)