Ethiopian Airlines crashes after takeoff from Beriut

[emshighway]

Ethiopian Airlines plane with 85 passengers crashes into sea after takeoff from Beirut - AP

[Matt Molnar]

737-800 to Addis Ababa. Just before 5AM in Beirut right now, not ideal search conditions, but daylight should arrive soon.

[ISP Pilot]

Hate to speculate so early but hope it's not terrorism related. They did have a 767 hijacking years ago with an unsucessful water ditching after running out of fuel.

[Matt Molnar]

Seven survivors found, according to Al Arabiya, quoting Lebanese Army officials.

Crash area is about a mile off the coast, about 20 miles south of BEY.

Here is the aircraft, ET-ANB, delivered in 2002. This would be the seventh 737-800 frame lost, and the second in less than a month.
1581466

[cancidas]

from FlightGlobal:


25/01/10
Contact with ill-fated Ethiopian 737 lost at 9,000ft
By David Kaminski-Morrow

Lebanese air traffic control lost contract with the crashed Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 at 9,000ft following its departure from Beirut today.

The director of Lebanon's air navigation department, Khaled Chamieh, tells Air Transport Intelligence that the aircraft departed runway 21 on a service to Addis Ababa.

Weather data shows the presence of cumulonimbus clouds and thunderstorm activity, but Chamieh says that the jet climbed to 9,000ft before contact was lost.

"The aircraft was called several times but it did not respond," he says, adding that the investigation is underway and no further information is available.

Ethiopian Airlines has ended confusion over the identity of the aircraft, confirming it was an eight-year old model - serial number 29935, registered ET-ANB - leased from CIT.

http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getAsset.aspx?ItemID=32550
© Tim Brown


The aircraft underwent maintenance on 25 December at the airline's facilities, says the carrier, and was "declared safe and fit to fly".

Ethiopian adds that the pilot had over 20 years' experience on various types across the carrier's network.

"A team of experts from Ethiopian has arrived in Beirut and has reported that the Lebanese Government and its army, together with the United Nations security forces in Beirut, are aggressively engaged in the search efforts for survivors at the accident scene," says the carrier.

Twenty-five victims have been recovered. Ninety passengers and crew were on board the flight, ET409.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Wow, made it to 9000' before crashing? That's interesting. Wonder if it was some kind of catastrophic dual engine failure or some extremely violent weather, or a combo of both....

[cancidas]

did some digging, found this on FlightGlobal:


Thunderstorms in vicinity at time of Ethiopian 737 crash
By David Kaminski-Morrow

Meteorological data for Beirut shows thunderstorm activity in the area during the time of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800's departure.

Weather information for Rafic Hariri International Airport around the time of take-off, 02:35, recorded winds from the northwest, with thunderstorms in the vicinity and a few cumulonimbus clouds at 2,000ft.

But the data also shows little other significant weather. Visibility was good with winds from the northwest.

Flight ET409 had been en route to the airline's base at Addis Ababa, with 82 passengers and eight crew members.

Ethiopian Airlines states that it has despatched a 14-strong team - including emergency response, medical, maintenance and security personnel - to the scene to assist the Lebanese rescue and recovery operation.

[Mayi757]

It seems the 738 is in a bad streak lately, some fatal, some not. All the accidents have come in the last 5 years or so and some really wacky ones that don't happen everyday like the Gol midair, fuel tank explosion on the ground, not just one, but now 2 fatal crashes after take off in bad weather, and 3 very recent running-out-of runway incidents including the AA one.

I read the a.net thread and it was a pain to do so with every post either saying RIP or speculating about causes and the usual contest going on there to see who's the bigger expert. Geez, think I will wait for real information from official sources in the investigation and check back in a few days.

I'm gonna speculate too and say it all started after they put winglets on these things! (I dislike winglets)