ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES DENOUNCE LEBANESE CRASH REPORT
Following the fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airlines B737-800 shortly after taking off from Beirut on 25th January 2010 was the accident investigation report finally published, but not without further controversy, which has apparently marked the entire period of the enquiry. Ethiopian sources from Addis Ababa had, on repeated questions as to the time elapsed since the crash and the silence of the Lebanese authorities hinted, that not all was well and that the trend of the investigation by the Lebanese was not corresponding with the Ethiopians own interpretation of available facts and eye witness statements available.
With the report now formally out, the Lebanese Civil Aviation has seemingly put the blame squarely on the pilots of the stricken flight, something the Ethiopian Civil Aviation body has rejected and attached their own dissenting statement to the final report, as is their right to do.
It is understood that further investigations outside the formal enquiry which is now concluded, are continuing to establish the true cause of the crash, focusing on eye witness reports of the plane being engulfed in a ball of fire while still in the skies, before crashing.
Speculation is therefore only freshly fueled now by the formal report, and the dissenting insert being published and it is hoped that at one time in the future the truth will finally come out.
Ethiopian Airlines safety record has otherwise been rated as very good and their own MRO in Addis Ababa is considered one of the leading repair and maintenance facilities in Africa as well as globally, while their training standards meet all the requirements of global aviation bodies. Watch this space.
3 Responses
In a January 25,2010 report on Reuters about the crash i, it stated “The Lebanese army said the plane had broken up in the air before plummeting into rough seas.” If anyone knows about explosions, it would be the army. Now, to hear that it was pilot error coming from one of the best run airlines in Africa, is a little hard to swallow.
Granted, it could have been pilot error, but unless they hit another plane, or a freak electrical phenomena, what could have caused the plane to break apart before hitting the seas.
There were added reports of a ‘fireball’ in the air, but in the absence of hard evidence on the wreckage, at least with no reference to such potential evidence at this point in time, this remains an open case for me.
W.
the Lebanese did refuse to recover the wreckage and to investigate bodies