CRASHES!?!?
NYTIMES/REUTERS:
An Ethiopian Airlines ... plane with 85 passengers on board crashed into the Mediterranean sea shortly after taking off from Beirut international airport in the early hours of Monday, airport sources said. The plane, said to be a Boeing ... 737 by one source, disappeared off the radar some five minutes after takeoff.ON FIRE BEFORE HITTING THE SEA!?!?
About 50 passengers were Lebanese nationals, most of the others were Ethiopians, the sources said. There were thought to be seven crew members.
The plane took off shortly after its scheduled time of 3:10 a.m. (0010 GMT), flying south-west, the sources said.
Ethiopian Airlines' website shows it has a flight from Beirut to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa around that time, operating a Boeing 737. The airline could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to one source, residents on the coast saw a plane on fire crashing.
HMMMMM...
THAT SOUNDS LIKE SOMEBODY'S UNDERPANTS EXPLODED TO ME. ON TAKE OFF. WITH LOADS OF FUEL IN THE FUEL TANKS.
STAY TUNED...
UPDATE: A LITTLE MORE HERE - IT REITERATES THE FACT THAT WITNESSES CLAIM IT WAS ON FIRE AS IT CRASHED.
*******UPDATE #2 (11PM EST): AL ARABIYA:
"Ethiopian Airline Flight 409 crashed about five minutes after takeoff at 2:30 am (1230 GMT)," an airport official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said witnesses saw a ball of fire as the jet plunged into the sea.
"The plane had disappeared from the radar screens only five minutes after takeoff," he said.
IT WAS O FIRE BEFORE IT HIT THE SEA - PROBABLY CRASHING AS A RESULT OF WHAT CAUSED THE FIRE.
IMO: PROBABLY AN ISLAMO-TERRORIST ATTACK.
12 comments:
No no no you silly bloger. It was probably an explosion of fuel vapors in the center wing fuel tank, most likely as a result of a short circuit.
Didn't ya learn nuttin' from TWA 800?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/world/middleeast/25crash.html
NYT
Ethiopian Airliner Crashes Near Beirut
By DERRICK HENRY and MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: January 24, 2010
An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday morning shortly after it took off from Beirut International Airport in stormy weather. Officials said that 82 passengers and 8 crew members were on board.
“The flight lost contact with Lebanese air traffic controllers shortly after takeoff,” said Wogayehu Terefe, a spokeswoman for Ethiopian Airlines. She added that a rescue crew was headed to the crash site to see if anyone had survived.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 — a Boeing 737 — had been scheduled to take off at 2:10 a.m., according to the company’s Web site, but it actually left at 2:30. The 1,730-mile flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, was scheduled to take 4 hours and 40 minutes.
A Lebanese aviation official told The Associated Press that the plane disappeared from the radar 45 minutes after taking off from Beirut.
Although African airlines in general have a shaky safety record, Ethiopian Airlines has a relatively good history. In a 1996 hijacking, however, one of its planes ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea.
Reuters reported that residents on the coast saw a plane on fire crashing.
Flight safety records indicate that there has not been a crash involving Beirut International Airport since 1987.
The Boeing 737 is one of the most widely used planes in the world, and while it has a fine overall safety record, it has been involved in a few crashes in Europe and Africa in recent years.
There have been questions about the plane’s rudders, notably in a 1994 crash near Pittsburgh in which a plane inexplicably fell out of the sky from about 8,000 feet.
MR and Anonymous,
Or, what about the plane that whose rear wing fell off causing it to land in Rockland, NY (where most of the NYC firefighters happened to live) just a month or so after 9/11/01?
Good memory Pastorius . ..
Crash scene already scarred by September attacks CNN archives 11/12/2001
". . .The Rockaway neighborhood is home to numerous New York firefighters, whose ranks suffered heavy losses in the September 11 attack. Several other neighborhood residents worked at Cantor-Fitzgerald, a bond-trading firm decimated in the twin towers' collapse. . ."
Got the name slightly wrong.
;-)
Investigation of the Crash of
American Airlines Flight 587
"Synopsis
On 12 November 2001, at approximately 9:17 a.m. local time, American Airlines flight 587, an Airbus A300-600, crashed into the Belle Harbor area of Queens, New York, several minutes after taking off from JFK International Airport. The plane was on a scheduled flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. All nine crew members and 251 passengers on the aircraft were killed, including five infants. Five people on the ground were also killed. "
The rear wing fell off, and witnesses said they heard an explosion BEFORE the plane fell out of the sky.
Pastorius, follow the link above to the investigation, you can view links to actual video taken at nearby toll booths. Yes, the plane exploded. It's visible in the video as the plane suddenly stops ascending - marked with a puff of smoke and then descends at a sharp angle with a massive contrail of smoke bellowing behind her.
*********
Update to the diverted Las Vegas flight
Martinsburg man helps subdue airline passenger
MARTINSBURG, W.VA. — A Martinsburg resident who helped subdue a man accused of attempting to open an airplane’s exterior door on a flight to Las Vegas Saturday said he looks back on the incident with amazement.
But Art Thomm chalked up his response up to a natural reaction.
Thomm, who was flying to Las Vegas on business, said he noticed a man sitting in a seat on the United Airlines flight with a puffy jacket.
Thomm said in a telephone interview Sunday that it seemed weird to him that the man was wearing the heavy jacket, given the warm temperature in the plane.
Also, the man was “staring into space,” Thomm said.
At the time, Thomm said he was going to the back of the plane to get a snack and told a steward about the man.
Thomm said he later noticed a passenger asking the man what he was doing while trying to subdue the man.
The man pushed the passenger off him, Thomm said.
Thomm said he approached the man, tackled him and held him down.
At that point, the plane was diverted to Denver, Thomm said.
“That’s the quickest I ever saw someone go down 37,000 feet,” Thomm said.
Thomm said it took about 10 minutes to arrive in Denver.
Thomm said he held the man down until the plane arrived in Denver, adding that he and the man exchanged some words while he was he holding him down.
When the plane landed, Thomm said the FBI came onto the plane and took over.
Thomm said when he got off the plane, he was questioned by Denver police and the FBI, and was released.
Authorities determined the incident was not a terrorism matter.
FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright said the passenger tried opening one of the front doors of the airplane and might have tried to open the cockpit door before passengers restrained him. The man was taken into custody, questioned and released for a medical evaluation, she said.
The man’s last known address was in New York state. Wright declined to release additional information, including the man’s name, citing medical privacy and the fact that the matter remained under investigation.
Passengers told Las Vegas television station KTNV-TV after the plane landed that the man said he was from California and was on the wrong plane.
The perp surrendered his right to privacy with his disruptive behavior. The police would have a much easier time with this investigation if they released his photo and identity to the msm. Passengers and airlines are f'n fed up with this nonsense and would be more than happy to provide the information necessary to prosecute these morons.
Both flight 800 and 587 are suspicious though it is interesting that no one took credit for their downing. The reasons given for both crashes are speculative -- mechanical and in the case of 587 possible co-pilot error -- but the alternate explanations vary, especially in the case of 800 (missle? explosive on board? friendly fire in effort to put down attacking small plane?). Sometimes I think it's coincidence and sometimes I think somebody's sending private nyah-nyah messages to investigators.
I'm waiting for one of these clowns to try something on Jet Blue and get clocked by my 6' nephew.
Canadian among 90 in Ethiopian plane crash
Ethiopian airliner crashes in 'ball of fire'
By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker and wires
Posted 1 hour 52 minutes ago
Updated 1 hour 25 minutes ago
" Aviation authorities in Lebanon say there is no sign of survivors from an Ethiopian Airlines plane that plunged into the Mediterranean Sea with 90 people on board.
The plane, heading for Addis Ababa, disappeared off the radar shortly after taking off from Beirut during a thunder storm and heavy rain.
Rescue workers have recovered more than 20 bodies from the water where the Boeing 737 crashed into the sea about 2:00am local time.
Witnesses reported a ball of fire in the sky just minutes after the plane took off from Beirut for the Ethiopian capital.
Fifty-five people on board were Lebanese and 22 were Ethiopian, while some had citizenship from Britain, Canada, Russia, Syria and France.
The wife of the French Ambassador to Lebanon is among those believed dead.
The cause of the crash is unknown but Lebanon has been battered by electrical storms in recent days.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has ruled out terrorism or sabotage.
The spokesperson for the United Nations mission in Lebanon, Neeraj Singh, says UNIFIL is helping in the search for survivors.
"As of now we have two ships in the general area looking for any possible survivors and a third ship is also on its way there," he said.
"In addition, we have two UNIFIL helicopters also assisting in the joint search and rescue operations."
Search and rescue workers in Lebanon located the crash site about three kilometres off the Lebanese coast.
Families of the passengers, some of them weeping, could be seen arriving at Beirut International Airport, where they were escorted to a private area to await news of their loved ones."
*********
Video: Crews search seas after Ethiopian Airlines jet crashes
*****
MYNet-Lebanon rules out terror as cause for plane crash
*****
Reuters-UPDATE 8-Ethiopian plane crashes off Beirut, 90 feared dead
*****
BBC-Two Britons on crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane
*****
SkyNews Video- Brits Among 90 Feared Dead In Plane Crash
****
Ethiopian Plane Crash: 23 Bodies Recovered"
Drudge= 'Unusually high' number of people on no-fly list trying to board US-bound planes...
If it is a terrorist attack, I am not sure if it's Hezbollah, though they'd be a suspect in this. Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda linked group could be the culprit as they are more overtly affiliated with Somali al-Shabaab terrorists.
But then again, so would Hezbollah as they also sent fighters to support al-Shabaab terrorists. The airline itself originated from Ethiopia. My guess is that if this were a terrorist attack it was revenge for Ethiopian troops going against Somali-al-Qaeda based terrorists.
That's a possible motive.
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