Ethiocross Blog

Updated:- The National News Agency (NNA)distributed the names of 22 Ethiopian passengers aboard flight 409

1) Addis Abera Demise (Ethiopia)

2) Bahrnesh Megersa (Ethiopia)

3) Kidist Wolde Mariam (Ethiopia)

4) Elisabeth Tilhum Habtermariam (Ethiopia)

5) Rahel Tadese (Ethiopia)

6) Etenesh Admasie (Ethiopia)

7) Woinshet Meugistu Melaku (Ethiopia)

8) Azeb Betre Kebede (Ethiopia)

9) Tigist Shikur Hajana (Ethiopia)

10) Hani Gebre Gembezo (Ethiopia)

11) Alunesh Tkele (Ethiopia)

12) Shitu Nuri (Ethiopia)

13) Selam Zigdaya (Ethiopia)

14) Yikma Mohamed (Ethiopia)

15) Seble Agezc (Ethiopia)

16) Aynalem Tessema (Ethiopia)

17) Eyerus Alem Desta (Ethiopia)

18) Mekiya Sirur (Ethiopia)

19) Lakesh Zeleke (Ethiopia)

20) Tigist Anura (Ethiopia)

21) Askalesh Soboka (Ethiopia)

22) Meselu Beshah (Ethiopia)

Source:- The Daily Star

Updated:-
More bodies found, Ethiopian plane black box located - Two more bodies were recovered Tuesday after an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing carrying 90 people plunged into the sea off Lebanon's coast shortly after take-off from Beirut the day before.

Officials said the find brought to 32 the number of bodies recovered from the crash in which all occupants of the plane are presumed to have died.

At various points along the coastline, Lebanese soldiers were seen carrying bodies, body parts and large pieces of the plane.

Lebanese media said late Tuesday that US rescue teams managed with their advanced equipment to pinpoint the location of the black box of the Ethiopian plane.

The reports said the black box was found at a depth of 500 metres and was to be recovered on Wednesday.

Rescue teams meanwhile continued to scour the Mediterranean in better weather a day after the crash.

Flight 409 from Beirut to Addis Ababa lost contact with air traffic control at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport in stormy weather shortly after takeoff. Minutes later, the aircraft crashed off the coast.

Health Minister Mohammed Khalifeh said some of the bodies that have been recovered since Monday were transferred to Beirut Governmental Hospital for DNA analysis.

'We already today identified some three bodies and they were handed to their families,' Khalifeh said.

A hospital source told the German Press Agency dpa that most of the bodies taken to the hospital showed severe neck and head injuries.

A Lebanese army officer told dpa that foreign rescue teams using advanced equipment had pinpointed the exact location of the crash.

He said rescuers believe the bodies of the remaining victims were still strapped in their seats inside what was left of the plane.

Initial information from air traffic control tower recordings indicate that the airliner appeared to have flown into a violent storm.

'A traffic control recording shows that the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction,' Defence Minister Elias Murr said. 'We do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot's control.'

According to an airport official, violent cumulonimbus - thunder clouds - can lead to the destruction of even the biggest aircraft. He added that airline pilots usually fly around them, guided by their own weather radar equipment or sometimes by ground controllers.

'We have to find the black box because all the truth lies there,' Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was meanwhile quoted as saying.

Lebanon has ruled out terrorism and blamed the crash on bad weather conditions.

The US embassy in Beirut said Tuesday the National Transportation Safety Board would dispatch an aviation investigator and technical advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing to assist Lebanese authorities in their probe.

The US has provided a P-3 aircraft which has thermal radar that can detect bodies and metal under water for the search and rescue operation. Britain and France also sent helicopters.

The passengers on the Ethiopian plane included Lebanese, Ethiopian, Iraqi, French and Syrian nationals. Several passengers with dual nationality were also on board.

Source:- Monsters and Critics

Ap :-BEIRUT – The pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed into the sea flew in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the control tower after taking off from Beirut in thunderstorms, Lebanon's transportation minister said Tuesday.

All 90 people on board were feared dead after the plane went down in flames minutes after takeoff at around 2:30 a.m. Monday, during a night of lightning and thunderstorms.

AP:- Ethiopian Airliner crash (Video)

Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said the pilot initially followed the tower's guidance, but then abruptly changed course and went in the opposite direction.

"They asked him to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar," Aridi told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear why the pilot veered off the recommended path. Like most other airliners, the Boeing 737 is equipped with its own onboard weather radar, which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into thunderheads rather than following the flight tower's recommendation.

"Nobody is saying the pilot is to blame for not heeding orders," Aridi said, adding: "There could have been many reasons for what happened. ... Only the black box can tell."

Lebanese officials have ruled out terrorism or "sabotage" on the flight bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

FOXNEWS:- Ethiopian Airliner crash (Video)

No survivors had been found more than 24 hours after the crash. Emergency workers have pulled bodies from the sea; the numbers reported so far range from a dozen to more than 20.

Ethiopian Airlines' CEO Girma Wake said Tuesday some bodies were probably still in the plane.

"We hope they will find trapped bodies in the fuselage," Wake said in Addis Ababa.

Searchers were trying to find the plane's black box and flight data recorder, which are critical to determining the cause of the crash.

On Tuesday, rescue teams and equipment sent from the U.N. and countries including the United States and Cyprus were helping in the search. Conditions were chilly but relatively clear — far better than Monday, when rain lashed the coast.

Pieces of the plane and other debris were washing ashore, and emergency crews pulled a large piece of the plane, about 3 feet (1 meter) long, from the water. A crew member, Safi Sultaneh, identified it as a piece of a wing.

An aviation analyst familiar with the investigation said Beirut air traffic control was guiding the Ethiopian flight through the thunderstorms for the first 2-3 minutes of its flight.

The official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said this was standard procedure by Lebanese controllers to assist airliners departing from the airport in poor weather conditions.

It is unclear exactly what happened in the last 2 minutes of flight, the official said.

Patrick Smith, a U.S.-based airline pilot and aviation writer, said there were many possible causes for the crash.

"Had the plane encountered extreme turbulence, or had it suffered a powerful lightning strike that knocked out instruments while penetrating strong turbulence, then structural failure or loss of control, followed by an in-flight breakup, are possible causes."

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 Lebanese army and witnesses say the plane was on fire shortly after takeoff. A defense official also said some witnesses reported the plane broke up into three pieces.

At the Government Hospital in Beirut, Red Cross workers brought in bodies covered with wool blankets as relatives gathered nearby. Marla Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, was among those on board, according to the French Embassy.

___

Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Katharine Houreld in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia contributed to this report.

Source:- Ap