Posted on 01/25/2010 12:23:22 AM PST by Cardhu
An Ethiopian Airliner with 92 passengers and crew on board has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut airport in Lebanon.
Aviation sources said flight 409 was heading for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa when it crashed at 2:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) on Monday.
According to Lebanon's Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi, the Boeing 737-800 disappeared from radar screens only five minutes after takeoff amid heavy rains and storms, and crashed into the sea about 12km (7 miles) south of the Rafiq Hariri airport.
Witnesses who live near the coast have reported seeing a ball of fire as the airliner plunged into the sea.
The passengers include 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, a French woman, a Syrian and seven crew members.
Several dual nationals including two British-Lebanese, one Canadian-Lebanese and a Russian-Lebanese were also on board the jet, Aridi added.
The French woman has been identified as the wife of France's ambassador to Lebanon, AFP reported airport officials as saying.
Rescue efforts to save possible survivors have been launched.
"We have contacted everyone, inside and outside the country, that can assist us and the Lebanese navy, the army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have joined in the rescue," the minister said.
The Boeing 737-800, which entered into commercial service in 1998, is one of the latest versions of the world's most widely used short to medium-haul airliners, and is capable of carrying up to 189 passengers
The lastest news is that there are six survivors
Are you sure? CNN says, " By Monday morning, crews had found nine bodies, but no survivors" ... which frankly sounds more plausible.
I am not sure, I just heard that on Press TV from their reporter in Beirut.
There is usually a lot of misinformation until you get something from an official spokesman and even then who knows.
I will not deny that I may have misheard the reporter talking about survivors or bodies found.
I think I may have to get an hearing aid. :)
I just heard it again and they said ten bodies and “there are reports of six survivors.”
So nothing is confirmed.
Prayers for the victims.
Wonder if there were any Muslims aboard.
Just wonderin' out loud.
No terrorist attack. No honkies on board.
That hasn’t stopped ‘em before.
}:-)4
I'll take a wild guess and say that there was at least one muslim male with a one-way ticket.
Actually I’d bet that it wasn’t a terrorist act. Taking off from Lebanon with a minimum of Europeans and Americans? Unless its some sort of internecine Lebanese thing.
oh, no kidding! Air Niger, 1988.
We flew in chicken and goat section, which is like coach here in the US.
Never again!
I've flown EgyptAir and it was as boring as an American carrier. The safety video was quite amusing when it can to the oxygen masks, though -- the video shows the mask falling down and slowly bobbing three times with the middle-eastern man's head bobbing to track it before he grabs the mask.
... seated somewhere around seat 19-A.
Isn’t this the same airline that several years ago had one of the crew, navigator IIRC, purposely fly the plane straight down into the ocean while yelling “Allah akbar” ?
That was Egypt Air. 1999, off the coast of Long Island.
No, you're thinking of Egypt Air Flight 990.
Thanks! At least Egypt and Ethiopia both starts with the letter “E” :-)
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