Doomed Ethiopian jet flew into lightning bolt
Source: Agencies |
January 28, 2010, Thursday
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EMERGENCY workers searched deep in the Mediterranean yesterday for the black boxes of a doomed Ethiopian Airlines jet as weather experts said that lightning had struck in the plane's path around the time of the deadly crash.
The plane went down in flames early on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Beirut in a fierce thunderstorm. All 90 people on board were feared dead.
"It was not your average, run-of-the-mill thunderstorm," AccuWeather.com meteorologist Jason Nicholls told The Associated Press yesterday. Using a network of lightning detection systems, Accuweather detected there was a lightning strike in the plane's path around the time of the crash, he said.
The black box and flight data recorder are critical to determining the cause of the crash.
Emergency workers would expand their search radius for the wreckage if they did not find the black boxes yesterday, an army official said.
Searchers have fanned out for 30 kilometers along Beirut's coast, about 8 kilometers out to sea, said the official.
The army official said the sea was 1,000 meters deep in some areas being searched and international search teams were using divers and sonar. He said emergency crews were bringing the pieces of the plane they have found to a military base.
Rescue teams have recovered some bodies and pieces of the plane, but hope for finding any survivors has faded.
In Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said 26 bodies have been found so far, five of them Ethiopians.
On Tuesday, Lebanon's Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said the pilot made a "fast and strange turn" minutes after takeoff but said it was far too early to know the cause of the crash.
The plane went down in flames early on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Beirut in a fierce thunderstorm. All 90 people on board were feared dead.
"It was not your average, run-of-the-mill thunderstorm," AccuWeather.com meteorologist Jason Nicholls told The Associated Press yesterday. Using a network of lightning detection systems, Accuweather detected there was a lightning strike in the plane's path around the time of the crash, he said.
The black box and flight data recorder are critical to determining the cause of the crash.
Emergency workers would expand their search radius for the wreckage if they did not find the black boxes yesterday, an army official said.
Searchers have fanned out for 30 kilometers along Beirut's coast, about 8 kilometers out to sea, said the official.
The army official said the sea was 1,000 meters deep in some areas being searched and international search teams were using divers and sonar. He said emergency crews were bringing the pieces of the plane they have found to a military base.
Rescue teams have recovered some bodies and pieces of the plane, but hope for finding any survivors has faded.
In Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said 26 bodies have been found so far, five of them Ethiopians.
On Tuesday, Lebanon's Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said the pilot made a "fast and strange turn" minutes after takeoff but said it was far too early to know the cause of the crash.
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