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Ethiopian airlines not ruling out sabotage on Lebanon Crash -Says investigations at early stage despite black box retrieval
By Dereje Berhanu
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- Ethiopian Airlines has stated that it is too early to come to any form of conclusions regarding the ET 409 plane crash that occurred two weeks ago off the Lebanese shores. The national carrier also stated that it is not ruling out all possible reasons -including the possibility of sabotage until the final outcome of the investigation is known.

The comments from Ethiopian came following reports from Beirut that the black box data showed sabotage cannot be blamed for the crash of an Ethiopian airliner that resulted in the deaths 90 people

According to Ethiopian Airlines investigations are still at an early phase.

“The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the aircraft’s wreckage have not yet been retrieved for analysis. It is therefore too early to conclude the cause of the accident. Ethiopian Airlines does not rule out all possible causes including the possibility of sabotage until the final outcome of the investigation is known”, stated the airlines

“it is not right to blame the dead pilot who cannot defend himself anymore. We prefer to not rush to conclusions and wait for the investigation results.” Girma Wake, CEO of Ethiopian warned.

“As a member of the investigation team, Ethiopian Airlines stated that it strictly adheres to the ICAO annex 13 regulation, in which it is mandated to refrain from any inconclusive comments on the process of investigation. Ethiopian Airlines would continue to cooperate with the investigation team to complete the process in accordance to the ICAO regulation. We share the pain and the sorrow of all family members of our crew and dear passengers who have lost their lives in this accident”, reads a statement from the airlines.

Ethiopian Airlines has confirmed that the flight data recorder from ET-409 has been retrieved off the coastal village of Naameh, south of Beirut airport on February 07, 2010. The flight data recorder has been sent to France for investigation.
More corpses were found during the recent investigation. The research is still underway to determine the identities of the founded dead.

Lebanese officials had given different theories to the nature of the accident earning the ire of Ethiopian officials. The Lebanese Transport Minster, who said the aircraft started to fly into the wrong direction when the pilot was warned and instructed to adjust his direction, he did not respond, but made a fast turn into an unpredictable direction and disappeared from radar.

The aircraft B737-800 was leased from the CIT group, a New York based company, which runs the business of leasing aircrafts. This particular aircraft was manufactured in 2002.