[Cardhu]

"The French woman has been identified as the wife of France's ambassador to Lebanon, AFP reported airport officials as saying"

The lastest news is that there are six survivors

[dr_lew]

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.

[rabscuttle385]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/01/25/ethiopian.airliner.crash/index.html

[fieldmarshaldj]

Prayers for the victims.

[Lazamataz]

Gee.

Wonder if there were any Muslims aboard.

Just wonderin' out loud.

[Gay State Conservative]

I've flown both EgyptAir and Air Tanzania and I can assure y'all that both flights were harrowing experiences.I've since vowed never again to fly a Third World airline.

[KosmicKitty]

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” ?

[AndyJackson]

Having flown Ethiopian Airlines, I assure you that it is a good airline. Crew was competent, planes modern and well maintained. The food was even good.

While there is a substantial Muslim population, Ethiopia has a majority of Christians.

[Michael Barnes]

Looks like we know where the Island popped up.

[Touch Not the Cat]

Interesting.

[Species8472]

Press release from the ET website quoted below:

ET-409 Incident - 25 January, 2010

Ethiopian flight ET-409 scheduled to operate from Beirut to Addis Ababa on January 25th lost contact with the Lebanese air controllers shortly after take off. The flight departed at 02:35 Lebanese time from Beirut International Airport.

Flight ET-409 carries 82 passenger plus 8 Ethiopian Crew members. Out of the total passengers 23 are Ethiopian, 51 Lebanese, 1 Turkish, 1 French, 2 British, 1 Russian, 1 Canadian, 1 Syrian, 1 Iraqi national.