Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 was an international commercial flight scheduled from Beirut to Addis Ababa that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Rafic Hariri International Airport on 25 January 2010, killing all 90 people on board.[1][2] This was the first fatal crash for Ethiopian Airlines since the hijack of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 in 1996.[3][4][5]

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800, similar to the one involved in the accident
Accident
Date25 January 2010
SummaryCrashed shortly after take-off
SiteMediterranean Sea, 3.5 km (2.2 mi; 1.9 nmi) off the coast of Na'ameh, Lebanon
33°45′28″N 35°25′49″E
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 737-8AS
OperatorEthiopian Airlines
IATA flight No.ET409
ICAO flight No.ETH409
Call signETHIOPIAN 409
RegistrationET-ANB
Flight originRafic Hariri International Airport, Beirut, Lebanon
DestinationBole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Occupants90
Passengers82
Crew8
Fatalities90
Survivors0

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-8AS, registration ET-ANB, s/n 29935.[1][6] It had its maiden flight on 18 January 2002, and was delivered new to Ryanair on 4 February 2002 as EI-CSW.[7] Stored in April 2009 (2009-04), Ethiopian Airlines took delivery of the aircraft on 12 September 2009, leased from CIT Aerospace.[3][7] Provided with twin CFM56-7B26 powerplants, the airframe last underwent maintenance checks on 25 December 2009 without any technical problems found.[3][7][8] It was 8 years and 7 days old at the time the accident took place.

The captain was 44-year-old Habtamu Benti Negasa, who had been with Ethiopian Airlines since 1989. He was one of the airline's most experienced pilots having logged 10,233 flight hours, including 2,488 hours on the Boeing 737. The first officer was 23-year-old Aluna Tamerat Beyene. He was far less experienced than the captain, having worked for Ethiopian Airlines for only a year and having 673 flight hours, 350 of them on the Boeing 737.[9]:28–29[10]

Accident

The Boeing 737 took off from runway 21 at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in stormy weather,[4] with 82 passengers and eight crew members on board.[11] The METAR data indicated wind speeds of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9 mph) from varying directions, with thunderstorms in the vicinity of the airport. The aircraft climbed to 9,000 feet (2,700 m),[2][12] turned sharply to the left, stalled, and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea at about 02:00 local time (UTC +2/EET). Radar contact was lost about four to five minutes into the flight,[13] while witnesses near the coast reported seeing the aircraft on fire as it crashed into the sea.[14][15] The flight had been scheduled to arrive at Addis Ababa at 07:50 local time (UTC +3/ EAT or 4:50 UTC).[15]

Search and recovery

On the morning following the crash, Lebanese authorities reported locating the crash site 3.5 kilometres (1.9 nmi) off the coast from the village of Na'ameh, in 45 metres (148 ft) of water.[16][17][6] The search for survivors was carried out by the Lebanese Army,[18] using Sikorsky S-61 helicopters, the Lebanese Navy and UNIFIL troops.[13] The U.S. military, in response to a request from the Lebanese government, sent the guided missile destroyer USS Ramage, a Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft,[19] and the salvage ship USNS Grapple.[20] The French Navy sent a Breguet Atlantic reconnaissance aircraft.[21] UNIFIL sent three ships (among them the German minesweeper tender Mosel and the Turkish corvette Bozcaada)[21] and two helicopters to the scene. Further helicopters were sent by the Royal Air Force,[4] and the Cyprus Police aviation unit.[22]

On 7 February, Lebanese Army divers recovered the plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (CVR).[23][24] The CVR was missing a memory storage unit when found. This was reported on 16 February as having been recovered.[6] All were sent to the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA) for analysis.[25]

All the deceased were recovered from the sea by 23 February. The recovered bodies were sent to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut for DNA testing and identification. They were all identified by the end of February.[6][26]

Investigation

The Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority investigated the accident, with the assistance of the BEA, Boeing, and the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States.[27][28]

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman stated before the flight data recorders were found that the crash was not due to terrorism.[29] Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri rejected the notion that the aircraft should not have been allowed to take off under the current weather conditions, stating that "many" other aircraft had taken off during the time period.[30]

The final investigation report released by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Works and Transport, presented on 17 January 2012, stated that "the probable causes of the accident were the flight crew's mismanagement of the aircraft's speed, altitude, headings and attitude through inconsistent flight control inputs resulting in a loss of control and their failure to abide by CRM [Crew Resource Management] principles of mutual support and calling deviations".[9]

Ethiopian Airlines stated the airline "strongly refutes" the report, and that it "was biased, lacking evidence, incomplete and did not present the full account of the accident". The airline wrote in a press release issued the same day as the investigation report that the halting of flight data and cockpit voice recording at 1,300 feet, the disappearance of the aircraft from radar at that time, and the eyewitness reports of a fireball "clearly indicate that the aircraft disintegrated in the air due to explosion, which could have been caused by a shoot-down, sabotage, or lightning strike."[31][32][33][34] The Lebanese CAA report had noted that eyewitnesses, including an air traffic controller and a crew flying in the vicinity of Flight 409, had reported seeing an "orange light", "an orange explosion", or "a ball of fire" at the time and toward the location the aircraft crashed into the sea; but concluded "No sign of any explosion or fire were detected on the wreckage" or "during the autopsies carried on some of the bodies".[9] It speculated that the impression of an explosion may have been caused by the aircraft lights during the aircraft's last steep dive; or by the "thunderstorm activities in the area".[9]

Passengers and crew

Ethiopian Airlines issued the following list of the nationalities of the victims:[35]

CountryPassengersCrewTotal
Lebanon51051
Ethiopia23831
United Kingdom202
Canada101
France101
Iraq101
Russia101
Syria101
Turkey101
Total 82890

Aftermath

A memorial ceremony was held at the Ethiopian Airlines premises in Addis Ababa on 14 February 2010.[36]

In the media

The crash was dramatized in the twelfth series of the Canadian documentary Mayday (also known as Air Emergency or Air Crash Investigation). It is titled "Heading to Disaster". The episode re-creates the crash based on the Lebanese investigators' final report.[37]

See also

References
  1. Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 25 August 2011.
  2. Kaminski-Morrow, David (25 August 2011). "Inquiry details crashed Ethiopian 737's erratic flightpath". London: Flightglobal. Air Transport Intelligence news. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  3. Karp, Aaron; Thomas, Geoffrey (26 June 2010). "Lebanese officials cite poor weather in Ethiopian 737 crash; NTSB to send investigator". Air Transport World. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  4. "Ethiopian Airlines jet crashes into sea off Beirut". BBC News. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  5. Henry, Derrick (24 January 2010). "Ethiopian Airliner Crashes Near Beirut". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  6. "Crash: Ethiopian Airlines B738 near Beirut on 25 January 2010, lost height after takeoff and impacted Mediterranean". The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  7. "Boeing 737 Next Gen MSN 29935". Airfleets.net. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  8. Ladki, Nadim; Bayoumy, Yara (25 January 2010). "UPDATE 11-Ethiopian plane crashes off Beirut, 90 feared dead". Reuters. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  9. "Investigation Report on the Accident to Ethiopian 409 – Boeing 737-800 Registration ET-ANB at Beirut – Lebanon on 25th January 2010" (PDF). Ministry of Public Works and Transport. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  10. "The crew of Ethiopian Flight 409 (update)". EthiopianReview.com. Ethiopian Review. 29 January 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  11. Zablit, Jocelyne (25 January 2010). "Ethiopian airliner crashes near Beirut". The Sydney Morning Herald. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  12. Kaminski-Morrow, David. "Contact with ill-fated Ethiopian 737 lost at 9,000ft". London: Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  13. Sandaruwan, Miyuru (25 January 2010). "ET409 crashed into sea". Airline Industry Review. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  14. "Ethiopian jet crashes off Beirut". Al Jazeera. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  15. "Ethiopian Airlines plane crashes into Mediterranean sea". The Telegraph. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  16. "Ethiopian jet crash bodies pulled from sea off Beirut". BBC News. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  17. Ladki, Nadim (25 January 2010). "Lebanon says Ethiopian plane crash site located". Reuters. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  18. "Ethiopian airliner crashes on takeoff in Lebanon". News.com.au. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  19. Perry, Carl; Husseini, Nada (26 January 2010). "Bodies found from Ethiopian Airlines crash". CNN. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  20. "US salvage ship to aid in Ethiopian Airlines aircraft recovery efforts". United States Navy. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  21. "Accident du Boeing d'Ethiopian airlines: un Atlantique 2 mène les recherches" [Ethiopian airlines Boeing accident: Atlantic 2 conducts research] (in French). Ministry of Defence (France). Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  22. Hazou, Elias. "Ninety feared dead in Lebanon crash". Cyprus Mail. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  23. "Black Box Retrieved 14 Days after Ethiopian Plane Crash" (news). Naharnet. An-Nahar. Archived from the original on 10 February 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
  24. "Ethiopia Airlines jet 'black box' retrieved in Lebanon". BBC News. 7 February 2010. Archived from the original on 27 March 2013.
  25. "Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 on 25 January 2010 B 737-800, registered ET-ANB" (Press release). Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 27 March 2013.
  26. Galey, Patrick; Katerji, Omar (26 January 2010). "90 feared dead in Ethiopian plane crash". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 26 July 2014.
  27. "Boeing Statement on Ethiopian Airlines Accident in Lebanon – Update" (Press release). Boeing. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  28. "US investigators to assist Lebanon with plane crash probe". iloubnan.info. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  29. Bonnett, Tom; Williams, David (25 January 2010). "Hopes Fade For 90 Plane Crash Passengers". Sky News. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  30. "Mitri Says Investigations in airliner Crash Are Ongoing". NOW News. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  31. Boynton, Christine (19 January 2012). "Ethiopian: Crash investigation report is incomplete, biased". Air Transport World. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  32. Perry, Dominic (19 January 2012). "Pilot error probable cause of Ethiopian Airlines 737 crash". London: Flightglobal. Flight International. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  33. "Ethiopian Airlines Refutes ET 409 Crash Report" (Press release). Ethiopian Airlines. 17 January 2012. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  34. Eyewitness: 'Fire falling down into the sea' Archived 9 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  35. "ET Flight 409 Incident 1". Ethiopian Airlines. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010.
  36. "ET Flight 409 Accident Update 10" (Press release). Ethiopian Airlines. 16 February 2010. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010.
  37. "Heading to Disaster". Mayday. Season 12. Episode 11. Discovery Channel Canada.
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