Human Error behind Ethiopian Plane Crash: Preliminary Report
A preliminary report said "human error" was the cause of the deadly Ethiopian Airlines plane crash into the Mediterranean Sea last month and that the last words the pilot said to his co-pilot: "We're finished … God have mercy on us."
Flight 409 bound for Addis Ababa crashed into sea off the coast of Naameh minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport early in the morning of Jan. 25, killing all 90 people on board.
Pending the outcome of the official report, which is to be announced by the Lebanese government sometime next week, the daily As-Safir on Friday uncovered outlines of the preliminary report.
As-Safir said the investigation team probing the plane crash incident retuned to Beirut from Paris on Thursday and handed over the report to Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The plane's two black boxes -- data flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder – were separately retrieved among the wreckage and flown to France for analysis by BEA, a French agency that specializes in assisting with technical investigations of air crashes.
As-Safir quoted a reliable source at France's Aviation Accidents Investigation bureau as saying that the cockpit voice recorder has revealed that the last words the pilot said were: "We're finished … God have mercy on us."
The pilot was speaking in Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia.
Audio recordings revealed that the pilot asked the co-pilot to follow instructions by Beirut airport control tower, only to find out that his assistance either did not heed to the orders or did the opposite.
This prompted the pilot to take a move which made him gradually lose control of the plane, the voice recorder showed.
The report said the jet remained intact until it hit water.
Cabinet, furthermore, did not take any decision to close the file on the plane crash incident pending an official report from the Lebanese Army about the search for remains of the remaining victims.
Beirut, 19 Feb 10, 07:34
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