Ethiopian Airline Crashes After Takeoff From Beirut

PHOTO: AN ETHIOPIAN BOEING 737. IMAGE: AP

San Francisco Jan 24, (THEWILL) – A plane belonging to Ethiopian Airlines has crashed into the Mediterranean sea with 90 people on board shortly after take off from the Beirut international airport early Monday morning.

The Plane, a Boeing 737-800, which was heading to Addis Ababa (Flight 409), disappeared from the radar about five minutes after take off at 2.10 a.m. Beirut time (1.a.m. WAT).

A passenger manifest according to Reuters showed that there were 83 passengers and 7 crew on board. 54 of the passengers were Lebanese, 22 were Ethiopian nationals, two were British and there were also Russian, Iraqi, Canadian, French and Syrian Citizens

Ethiopian Airlines is owned by the Ethiopian government.

Lebanese Transport Minister, Ghazi al-Aridi said rescue workers have located the crash site, which is three and a half km from the village of Na'ameh, adding that search and rescue efforts have started but would not give more details. He also said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash.

All indications indicate that there may be no survivors. So far, 23 bodies have been recovered from the sea as at the time of this update.

Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri has announced a day of mourning and has ordered all government offices and agencies closed in honour of the victims.