An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people exploded into flames and crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut airport amid violent storms early Monday morning. The Boeing 737 jet had been bound for the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa when it took off in adverse weather at just after 2:00 am local time. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a large explosion shortly after take-off.
A frantic search and rescue operation, bolstered by international retrieval squads was under way Monday as wind and rain lashed the coast. As The Daily Star went to press, at least 14 bodies had been hauled from the crash site south of Beirut, according to the Lebanese Red Cross, including two unidentified toddlers.
Other reports put the figure of dead higher and hopes of finding survivors were fading rapidly.
The cause of the crash was unknown, although statements from both the Lebanese and Ethiopian governments initially ruled out a terrorist attack.
Defense Minister Michel Murr blamed the atrocious weather conditions that had been battering Lebanon since Saturday evening.
“Bad weather was apparently the cause of the crash,” Murr said. “We have ruled out foul play so far.”
“We had not received any threat before from terrorist groups whatsoever,” said Ethiopian state minister for communication, Shimeles Kemal.
Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO Girma Wake told journalists in Addis Ababa that he had no information on the fate of people on board the plane.
He added that the aircraft was last serviced on December 25 and had passed inspection.
President Michel Sleiman declared the crash “a national disaster.”
Flight ET409 took off with 83 passengers and seven crew members, according to Lebanese Army officials. Ethiopian Airlines said that 82 passengers and eight crew were on board. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained.
Minister for Transportation and Public Works Ghazi Aridi released a list of passenger names, identifying 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one Syrian, one Canadian of Lebanese origin, one Russian of Lebanese origin, a French woman and two Britons of Lebanese origin.
“All that we have is one British national and one dual national was on board the plane,” a British Embassy spokesperson told The Daily Star.
The wife of French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton was on board, the French Embassy confirmed. Her body had not been retrieved by late Monday evening.
A meeting at Beirut’s Grand Serail, headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri and attended by defense, health, foreign, transport, information and interior ministers and state prosecutor Saeed Mirza, army commander Jean Kahwaji, ISF head Ashraf Rifi and head of the Higher Relief Council, Yahia Raad, discussed rescue efforts and coordination among concerned authorities. Also in attendance were the Head of Civil Aviation Hamdi Chawk and Head of Lebanese Red Cross, Sami Dahdah.
Reporters asked Information Minister Tarik Mitri why the plane had been allowed to take off in such poor weather. “There was no reason for the plane not to fly,” he replied. “There were planes that flew and landed at the airport at the same time.”
Distraught friends and relatives of passengers gathered at Beirut airport and the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in south Beirut, where bodies from the crash began to arrive from mid morning.
Zeinab Seklawi told reporters at the airport her 24-year-old son Yasser called her as he was boarding.
“I told him, ‘God be with you,’ and I went to sleep,” Seklawi said. “Please find my son. I know he’s alive and wouldn’t leave me.”
Prime Minister Saad Hariri visited Beirut airport to pay his condolences to relatives of victims, hundreds of whom gathered in VIP areas to hear passengers’ fate.
“Our main concern has been from the very first moment to search for the missing victims,” Hariri told reporters. “Our heart goes out to all the families of the victims.”
Some plane remains were washed ashore, along with charred remnants of passenger seats, clothing and items of baggage. A child’s shoe could be seen protruding from a broken suitcase.
Search and rescue operations were hampered by continuing heavy wind and rain, with retrieval teams from UNIFIL, the US, France, Great Britain and Cyprus all assisting maneuvers.
UNIFIL’s Maritime Task Force sent three vessels and two helicopters to assist in operations which were joined later by one US and one French warship, as well as several aircraft.
Head of UNIFIL’s press office Neeraj Singh said the rescue operation was developing rapidly.
“We cannot give a number of retrieved bodies because rescue efforts are ongoing and there is something new every second,” he said.
“The weather constitutes a big obstacle facing rescue teams. UNIFIL is ready to provide assistance needed by Lebanese authorities.”
President Sleiman, following a visit to Rafik Hariri Hospital, said that all possible efforts were being exerted to rescue potential survivors.
“We are taking all measures that can lead us to find more bodies,” he told reporters. “Searches are ongoing with the hope of finding more survivors and we will make use of all techniques to unveil the causes of the accident and find all the missing people.”
“We are in deep grieving,” Sleiman added.
Rescuers were unable to locate the plane’s black box, which could hold vital information on what caused flight ET409 to disappear from radar five minutes after takeoff.
Jihad al-Moghrabi, a Naameh resident, told The Daily Star that he had watched with his baby son as the plane was battered by a double lightning strike shortly before crashing.
“We saw two forks of lightning hit the plane and an explosion blaze across the skyline,” he said. “It was there for a matter of seconds then vanished into the darkness.”
Hariri, who was accosted by angry relatives at Beirut airport, declared a national day of mourning for the crash victims.
“This incident is very difficult on all the families and no one can feel their pain unless they’ve lost someone they love,” he said. “These people are parents who do not know what happened to their children and loved ones.”
Many passengers on board were workers en route to businesses in West Africa. Tens of thousands of Lebanese work in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Angola, the overwhelming, majority of whom are Shiites.
Several of the crash victims hailed from the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh.
Politicians and religious leaders expressed their condolences to the families of victims on Monday.
Bodies of crash victims were taken to hospital in Beirut. The National News Agency reported a communiqué from the emergency cell of the Defense Ministry.
“It is very difficult to recognize the bodies that were taking out of the water, because they are swollen and mutilated,” the NNA said, quoting a medical source
The first body arrived at 12:10 pm when hospital staff began asking family members for blood samples in order to conduct DNA tests for identification.
“We are currently performing DNA tests so that we can know more about the bodies,” said Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh. “The effort is big and there are going to be psychological clinics for relatives and parents of the victims.
“We understand the situation of parents but there shouldn’t be any chaos. We are waiting for all the bodies to be removed from the sea and we now have a DNA bank to compare the DNA of the bodies to the relatives.”
“We were able to identify one person, Hassan Tajeddine, because his passport was still in his pocket,” Khalifeh said, adding that he hoped for improved weather conditions to “launch smoother rescue operations.”
“Hopes of finding survivors are fading with time,” he said. “I expect that a lot of corpse will be found in the body of the plane.”
The gruesome extent of the crash was becoming apparent on Monday evening.
Dr Fathallah Fattouth, head of the emergency unit at Rafik Hariri University Hospital, told The Daily Star that many bodies were charred beyond recognition, indicating that a fire had occurred on board. “Most bodies are complete,” he said. “Three heads are missing and we found one leg on its own.
“They have [bruises], which shows that their body was projected against something. Some of them have belt marks.”
Ethiopian Airlines has long had a reputation for high-quality service compared to other African airlines.
Aeronautical manufacturer Boeing said it is coordinating with the US National Transportation Safety Board to assist Lebanese authorities in the investigation.