Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409

Last updated

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409
Boeing 737-8AS ET-ANB Ethiopian Airlines.jpg
ET-ANB, the aircraft involved in the crash, seen 2 months before the accident
Accident
Date25 January 2010
SummaryCrashed shortly after take-off due to loss of control, pilot error, fatigue, and poor crew resource management
Site Mediterranean Sea, 3.5 km (2.2 mi; 1.9 nmi) off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon
33°45′28″N35°25′49″E / 33.75778°N 35.43028°E / 33.75778; 35.43028
Aircraft
Aircraft type Boeing 737-8AS
Operator Ethiopian Airlines
IATA flight No.ET409
ICAO flight No.ETH409
Call signETHIOPIAN 409
Registration ET-ANB
Flight origin Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, Lebanon
Destination Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Occupants90
Passengers82
Crew8
Fatalities90
Survivors0

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 was an international commercial flight scheduled from Beirut to Addis Ababa that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Rafic Hariri International Airport on 25 January 2010, killing all 90 people on board. [1] [2] This was the first fatal crash for Ethiopian Airlines since the hijack of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 in 1996. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-8AS, registration ET-ANB, s/n 29935. [1] [6] It had its maiden flight on 18 January 2002, and was delivered new to Ryanair on 4 February 2002 as EI-CSW. [7] Stored in April 2009, Ethiopian Airlines took delivery of the aircraft on 12 September 2009, leased from CIT Group. [3] [7] Provided with twin CFM56-7B26 powerplants, the airframe last underwent maintenance checks on 25 December 2009 without any technical problems found. [3] [7] [8] It was 8 years and 7 days old at the time the accident took place.

The captain was 44-year-old Habtamu Benti Negasa, who had been with Ethiopian Airlines since 1989. He was one of the airline's most experienced pilots, having logged 10,233 flight hours, including 2,488 hours on the Boeing 737. The first officer was 23-year-old Aluna Tamerat Beyene. He was far less experienced than the captain, having worked for Ethiopian Airlines for only a year and having 673 flight hours, 350 of them on the Boeing 737. [9] : 28–29  [10]

Accident

The Boeing 737 took off from runway 21 at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in stormy weather, [4] with 82 passengers and eight crew members on board. [11] The METAR data indicated wind speeds of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9 mph) from varying directions, with thunderstorms in the vicinity of the airport. The aircraft climbed erratically to 9,000 feet (2,700 m), [2] [12] stalled and entered a spiral dive to the left. Radar contact was lost a few seconds before it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea at 02:41 local time (UTC +2/EET), [9] : 15  [13] four or five minutes after take off. Witnesses near the coast reported seeing the aircraft on fire as it crashed into the sea. [14] [15]

Search and recovery

On the morning following the crash, Lebanese authorities reported locating the crash site 3.5 kilometres (1.9 nmi) off the coast from the village of Na'ameh, in 45 metres (148 ft) of water. [16] [17] [6] The search for survivors was carried out by the Lebanese Army, [18] using Sikorsky S-61 helicopters, the Lebanese Navy and UNIFIL troops. [13] The U.S. military, in response to a request from the Lebanese government, sent the guided missile destroyer USS Ramage, a Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, [19] and the salvage ship USNS Grapple. [20] The French Navy sent a Breguet Atlantic reconnaissance aircraft. [21] UNIFIL sent three ships (among them the German minesweeper tender Mosel and the Turkish corvette Bozcaada ) [21] and two helicopters to the scene. Further helicopters were sent by the Royal Air Force, [4] and the Cyprus Police Aviation Unit. [22]

On 7 February, Lebanese Army divers recovered the plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (CVR). [23] [24] The CVR was missing a memory storage unit when found. This was reported on 16 February as having been recovered. [6] All were sent to the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) for analysis. [25]

All the deceased were recovered from the sea by 23 February. The recovered bodies were sent to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut for DNA testing and identification. They were all identified by the end of February. [6] [26]

Investigation

The Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA) investigated the accident, with the assistance of the BEA, Boeing, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States. [27] [28]

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman stated before the flight data recorders were found that the crash was not due to terrorism. [29] Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri rejected the notion that the aircraft should not have been allowed to take off under the current weather conditions, stating that "many" other aircraft had taken off during the time period. [30]

Final report

The final investigation report was created by the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA), part of the Lebanese Ministry of Public Works and Transport, and presented on 17 January 2012.

Possible fire on board

It noted that eyewitnesses, including an air traffic controller, and a crew flying in the vicinity of Flight 409, had reported seeing an "orange light", "an orange explosion", or "a ball of fire" which matched "the time and calculated location of the accident". [9] The LCAA speculates, in their report, that impressions of explosions or fire may have been caused by the aircraft lights during the steep dive or by "thunderstorm activities in the area", [9] as "no sign of any explosion or fire were detected on the wreckage" or "during the autopsies carried on some of the bodies". [9]

Black soot

On the wreckage "a black soot near the APU exhaust" was found with "some wrinkle on the metal". [9] A laboratory examination by the NTSB "confirmed that the black soot was not related to excessive heat or fire", because "Zinc chromate primer paint changes color when exposed to heat" and "there was no change in the color of the paint on the primer side". [9] The spectrum analysis suggests that the black soot "was organic" and it "most closely matched spectra from lubricating oils". [9]

Cause

The report concluded that "the probable causes of the accident were the flight crew's mismanagement of the aircraft's speed, altitude, headings, and attitude through inconsistent flight control inputs resulting in a loss of control and their failure to abide by CRM (Crew Resource Management) principles of mutual support and calling deviations". [9]

Contributing factors

The report also listed a number of contributing factors:

  • The manipulation of the flight controls by the flight crew in an ineffective manner resulted in the aircraft's undesired behavior and increased the level of stress of the pilots.
  • The aircraft being out of trim for most of the flight directly increased the workload on the pilot and made his control of the aircraft more demanding.
  • The prevailing weather conditions at night most probably resulted in spatial disorientation to the flight crew and lead to loss of situational awareness.
  • The consecutive flying on a new type with the absolute minimum rest could have likely resulted in a chronic fatigue affecting the captain's performance. [Note 1]
  • The first officer's reluctance to intervene did not help in confirming a case of captain's subtle incapacitation [Note 2] and/or to take over control of the aircraft as stipulated in the operators SOP. [9]

Response by the Airline

Ethiopian Airlines stated they "strongly refutes [sic]" the report, and that it "was biased, lacking evidence, incomplete and did not present the full account of the accident".

The airline released a press statement on the day the investigation report was presented. In it, they pointed out that the halting of flight data and cockpit voice recordings at 1,300 feet (ca. 396 meters), disappearing from radar at that time, and eyewitness reports of a fireball "clearly indicate that the aircraft disintegrated in the air due to explosion, which could have been caused by a shoot-down, sabotage, or lightning strike." [31] [32] [33] [34]

Passengers and crew

Ethiopian Airlines issued the following list of the nationalities of the victims: [35]

CountryPassengersCrewTotal
Lebanon51051
Ethiopia23831
United Kingdom202
Canada101
France101
Iraq101
Russia101
Syria101
Turkey101
Total 82890

A memorial ceremony was held at the Ethiopian Airlines premises in Addis Ababa on 14 February 2010. [36]

In the media

The crash was dramatized in the twelfth series of the Canadian documentary Mayday (also known as Air Emergency or Air Crash Investigation). It is titled "Heading to Disaster". The episode re-creates the crash based on the Lebanese investigators' final report. [37]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ It is also mentioned that the heavy meal discussed by the crew prior to take-off has affected their quality of sleep prior to that flight.
  2. ↑ The report stated that "subtle incapacitation is about a slow degradation of performance in a crew member. It is more dangerous when it occurs to the captain, due to the cockpit authority gradient. The pilot would look and sound as if he was conscious; however, his performance would have degraded.", and "Such incapacitation have been identified by experts as being the result of sleep loss, fatigue, emotional stress, blood chemistry imbalances, or as a result of some drugs or alcohol."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aviation accidents and incidents</span>

An aviation accident is an event during aircraft operation that causes serious injury, death, or destruction; an aviation incident is any operating event that compromises safety but does not progress to an actual accident. Preventing accidents and incidents is the main goal of aviation safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961</span> 1996 Ethiopian Airlines flight accident in Comoros

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled international flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi by three Ethiopians seeking asylum in Australia. The plane crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near Grande Comore, Comoros Islands, due to fuel exhaustion; 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board, including the three hijackers, died. This is the first recorded instance of a partially successful ditching utilizing a wide-body aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UTA Flight 141</span> 2003 aviation accident in Benin

UTA Flight 141 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Guinean regional airline Union des Transports Africains de Guinée, flying from Conakry to Dubai with stopovers in Benin, Libya and Lebanon. On 25 December 2003, the Boeing 727–223 operating the flight struck a building and crashed into the Bight of Benin while rolling for take off from Cotonou, killing 141 people. The crash of Flight 141 was the deadliest crash in Benin's aviation history.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1970.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1977.

PT Lion Mentari Airlines, operating as Lion Air, is an Indonesian low-cost airline based in Jakarta. Lion Air is the country's largest privately run airline, the second largest low-cost airline in Southeast Asia and the largest airline of Indonesia. With Wings Air and Batik Air, Lion Group is the country's largest airline's group. The airline operates domestic as well as international routes, which connects different destinations of Indonesia to Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, India, Japan and Saudi Arabia, as well as charter routes to Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Macau, with more than 630 flights per day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TMA Cargo</span> Inactive cargo airline in Lebanon

Trans Mediterranean Airways SAL, styled as TMA Cargo, was a cargo airline based in Beirut, Lebanon. The airline restarted operations in 2010, following a six-year hiatus. It suspended operations once again in September 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysian Airline System Flight 653</span> 1977 aviation hijacking

Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 (MH653) was a scheduled domestic flight from Penang to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, operated by Malaysian Airline System (MAS). On the evening of 4 December 1977, the Boeing 737-200 aircraft flying the service crashed at Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, while purportedly being diverted by hijackers to Singapore. It was the first fatal air crash for Malaysia Airlines, with all 93 passengers and 7 crew killed. It is also the deadliest aviation disaster to occur on Malaysian soil. The flight was apparently hijacked as soon as it reached cruise altitude. The circumstances in which the hijacking and subsequent crash occurred remain unsolved.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ADC Airlines Flight 053</span> 2006 aviation accident

ADC Airlines Flight 053 (ADK053) was a scheduled passenger flight operated by ADC Airlines from Nigeria's capital of Abuja to Sokoto. On 29 October 2006, the Boeing 737-2B7 crashed onto a corn field shortly after take-off from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, killing 96 out of 105 people on board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle East Airlines Flight 438</span> 1976 airliner bombing

Middle East Airlines Flight 438 was an international passenger flight operated by a Boeing 720 from Beirut, Lebanon, to Muscat, Oman, with a stopover in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On 1 January 1976 the aircraft operating the flight was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 81 people on board. The bombers were never identified.

Myanmar National Airlines, formerly Union of Burma Airways, Burma Airways, and Myanma Airways, is a state-owned airline and the flag carrier of Myanmar, based in Yangon. Founded in 1948, the airline operates scheduled services to all major domestic destinations and to regional destinations in Asia. Its main base is Yangon International Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkish Airlines Flight 1951</span> 2009 aviation accident

Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 was a passenger flight that crashed during landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands, on 25 February 2009, resulting in the deaths of nine passengers and crew, including all three pilots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USAir Flight 427</span> Aviation accident in 1994

USAir Flight 427 was a scheduled flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Palm Beach International Airport, Florida, with a stopover at Pittsburgh International Airport. On Thursday, September 8, 1994, the Boeing 737 flying this route crashed in Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania while approaching Runway 28R at Pittsburgh, which was USAir's largest hub at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Airlines Flight 331</span> 2009 aviation accident

On 22 December 2009, an American Airlines Boeing 737-800, operating American Airlines Flight 331 and carrying 148 passengers and six crew, overran runway 12 on landing at Kingston in poor weather. The plane continued on the ground outside the airport perimeter and broke apart on the beach, causing injuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethiopian Airlines accidents and incidents</span>

Ethiopian Airlines, the national airline of Ethiopia, has a good safety record. As of March 2019, the Aviation Safety Network records 64 accidents/incidents for Ethiopian Airlines that total 459 fatalities since 1965, plus six accidents for Ethiopian Air Lines, the airline's former name. Since July 1948, the company wrote off 36 aircraft, including three Boeing 707s, three Boeing 737s, one Boeing 767, two Douglas DC-3s, two Douglas DC-6, one de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo, two de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters, 21 subtypes of the Douglas C-47, one Lockheed L-749 Constellation and one Lockheed L-100 Hercules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363</span> November 2013 aircraft accident in Kazan, Russia

Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight, operated by Tatarstan Airlines on behalf of Ak Bars Aero, from Moscow to Kazan, Russia. On 17 November 2013, at 19:24 local time (UTC+4), the Boeing 737-500 crashed during an aborted landing at Kazan International Airport, killing all 44 passengers and 6 crew members on board, making it 2013's worst plane crash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302</span> 2019 plane crash near Bishoftu, Ethiopia

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft which operated the flight crashed near the town of Bishoftu six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boeing 737 MAX groundings</span> 2019–20 worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX

The Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and December 2020 – longer in many jurisdictions – after 346 people died in two similar crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. The Federal Aviation Administration initially affirmed the MAX's continued airworthiness, claiming to have insufficient evidence of accident similarities. By March 13, the FAA followed behind 51 concerned regulators in deciding to ground the aircraft. All 387 aircraft delivered to airlines were grounded by March 18.

References

  1. 1 2 Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network . Retrieved on 25 August 2011.
  2. 1 2 Kaminski-Morrow, David (25 August 2011). "Inquiry details crashed Ethiopian 737's erratic flightpath". London: Flightglobal. Air Transport Intelligence news. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Karp, Aaron; Thomas, Geoffrey (26 June 2010). "Lebanese officials cite poor weather in Ethiopian 737 crash; NTSB to send investigator". Air Transport World. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 "Ethiopian Airlines jet crashes into sea off Beirut". BBC News . 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  5. ↑ Henry, Derrick (24 January 2010). "Ethiopian Airliner Crashes Near Beirut". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Crash: Ethiopian Airlines B738 near Beirut on 25 January 2010, lost height after takeoff and impacted Mediterranean". The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  7. 1 2 3 "Boeing 737 Next Gen MSN 29935". Airfleets.net. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  8. ↑ Ladki, Nadim; Bayoumy, Yara (25 January 2010). "UPDATE 11-Ethiopian plane crashes off Beirut, 90 feared dead". Reuters. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Investigation Report on the Accident to Ethiopian 409 – Boeing 737-800 Registration ET-ANB at Beirut – Lebanon on 25th January 2010" (PDF). Ministry of Public Works and Transport. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  10. ↑ "The crew of Ethiopian Flight 409 (update)". EthiopianReview.com. Ethiopian Review. 29 January 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  11. ↑ Zablit, Jocelyne (25 January 2010). "Ethiopian airliner crashes near Beirut". The Sydney Morning Herald. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 15 May 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  12. ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David. "Contact with ill-fated Ethiopian 737 lost at 9,000ft". London: Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  13. 1 2 Sandaruwan, Miyuru (25 January 2010). "ET409 crashed into sea". Airline Industry Review. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  14. ↑ "Ethiopian jet crashes off Beirut". Al Jazeera. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  15. ↑ "Ethiopian Airlines plane crashes into Mediterranean sea". The Telegraph. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  16. ↑ "Ethiopian jet crash bodies pulled from sea off Beirut". BBC News. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  17. ↑ Ladki, Nadim (25 January 2010). "Lebanon says Ethiopian plane crash site located". Reuters. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  18. ↑ "Ethiopian airliner crashes on takeoff in Lebanon". News.com.au. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  19. ↑ Perry, Carl; Husseini, Nada (26 January 2010). "Bodies found from Ethiopian Airlines crash". CNN. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  20. ↑ "US salvage ship to aid in Ethiopian Airlines aircraft recovery efforts". United States Navy. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  21. 1 2 "Accident du Boeing d'Ethiopian airlines: un Atlantique 2 mène les recherches" [Ethiopian airlines Boeing accident: Atlantic 2 conducts research] (in French). Ministry of Defence (France). Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  22. ↑ Hazou, Elias. "Ninety feared dead in Lebanon crash". Cyprus Mail. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  23. ↑ "Black Box Retrieved 14 Days after Ethiopian Plane Crash" (news). Naharnet. An-Nahar. Archived from the original on 10 February 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
  24. ↑ "Ethiopia Airlines jet 'black box' retrieved in Lebanon". BBC News . 7 February 2010. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012.
  25. ↑ "Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 on 25 January 2010 B 737-800, registered ET-ANB" (Press release). Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012.
  26. ↑ Galey, Patrick; Katerji, Omar (26 January 2010). "90 feared dead in Ethiopian plane crash". The Daily Star . Archived from the original on 26 July 2014.
  27. ↑ "Boeing Statement on Ethiopian Airlines Accident in Lebanon – Update" (Press release). Boeing. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  28. ↑ "US investigators to assist Lebanon with plane crash probe". iloubnan.info. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  29. ↑ Bonnett, Tom; Williams, David (25 January 2010). "Hopes Fade For 90 Plane Crash Passengers". Sky News. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  30. ↑ "Mitri Says Investigations in airliner Crash Are Ongoing". NOW News. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  31. ↑ Boynton, Christine (19 January 2012). "Ethiopian: Crash investigation report is incomplete, biased". Air Transport World. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  32. ↑ Perry, Dominic (19 January 2012). "Pilot error probable cause of Ethiopian Airlines 737 crash". London: Flightglobal. Flight International. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  33. ↑ "Ethiopian Airlines Refutes ET 409 Crash Report" (Press release). Ethiopian Airlines. 17 January 2012. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  34. ↑ Eyewitness: 'Fire falling down into the sea' Archived 9 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  35. ↑ "ET Flight 409 Incident 1". Ethiopian Airlines. 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010.
  36. ↑ "ET Flight 409 Accident Update 10" (Press release). Ethiopian Airlines. 16 February 2010. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010.
  37. ↑ "Heading to Disaster". Mayday. Season 12. Episode 11. Discovery Channel Canada.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.