Ethiopian Airlines jet crashes after takeoff from Beirut
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed shortly after takeoff from Beirut International Airport early Monday morning. The cause was not immediately known. But police ruled out terrorism and said the crash was likely weather-related. It had been raining heavily in Beirut on Sunday, and lightning had occasionally struck.
The jet had 90 passengers on board. As of this writing, four bodies have been recovered. The Boeing 737-800 took off around 2:30 a.m. for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, said Ghazi Aridi, Lebanon's public works and transportation minister.
"The weather undoubtedly was very bad," Aridi told reporters at the airport. He added that the plane went down about 3.5 kilometers off the Lebanese coast.
Helicopters and naval ships were deployed to find the plane, but came up unsuccessful.
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The plane was carrying 90 people, including 83 passengers and 7 crew members. Aridi identified the passengers as 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.
The wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon was on the plane, according to an embassy official who asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the matter.
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