Ethopian plane crashes into Mediterranean, 92 on board

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft had 83 passengers; 54 Lebanese nationals, 22 Ethiopians, two British-Lebanese, an Iraqi, a Syrian, a Lebanese-Canadian, a Russian-Lebanese and a person from France.

It is reported that Boeing disappeared around 4:30 a.m., after taking off at 2:10 a.m. from the airport.

“Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed about five minutes after takeoff at 2.30 am (1130 AEDT Monday) with 83 passengers and nine crew members,” spoke an airport official on conditions of anonymity.

He said witnesses saw a giant ball of fire crashing 3.5 km west of the town of Na'ameh. Naa'meh is 15 km south of Beirut.

Wreckage found off the coast of Lebanon
Lebanon’s torrential rains since past two days are supposed to be the cause of the accident.

Officials said there was no news about the number of casualties yet. “We haven’t found any survivors yet,” said Minister of Public Works and Transport Ghazi Al-Aridi in a phone interview.

However, wreckage has been found off the Lebanese coast, which the navy and civil defense forces are trying to rescue.

Ethiopian Airlines released a statement on its Web site confirming the same. It said, “A team is already working on gathering all pertinent information. An investigative team has already been dispatched to the scene and we will release further information as further updates are received.”

Boeing 737 last suffered crash in 1996
Ethiopian Airlines operates a fleet of Boeing planes including the 10 787 Dreamliners, 12 Airbus SAS A350s and 5 Boeing 777s.

The current carrier has not suffered a crash since November 1996, when 125 people were hijacked onboard.

However, the fatality comes just a month after Panamanian-flagged cargo ship capsized. It had 80 sailors on board. Only 54 of them were rescued.