Odyssey Explorer left Beirut at 07.45 this morning and is heading for the 'crash site'

Still waiting for permission to raise some of the wreckage.

SoS

Odyssey Explorer was 4.2 nm offshore from Naame for the first part of the day. The water depth at that location is approximately 940 feet, which is beyond the reach of divers.

They have since moved in to about 2 miles off shore near the previously searched area.

FlightGlobal: Crashed Ethiopian 737's missing CVR section found
 

Why exactly are the BEA being tasked with this investigation, as regards FDR/CVR ? because the wife of a French diplomat was on board ?
Just because they have the expertise?

Don't remember them coming up with a very definitive explanation for Flash Airlines and its (French) pax, seeem to remember some bollocks about flap asymmetry, which helped preserve Egyptian pride.
Hope this one is a bit clearer / and quicker . . . . how many public holidays coming up soon ? :cool:

Wrong. The investigation concluded: Spatial disorientation by PF, PNF unwilling to challenge PF, bad training. Egyptians didn't like what BEA presented.

History and language would be two possible answers. After World War I the League of Nations transferred control of many territories from the losers to the winners. France was given the mandate for Syria, of which Lebanon was a part. As a result, French is still a conditional official language of Lebanon.

Please don't flame me...
 

.. but, dark night and over sea - few visual cues - no mayday call - and no terrorist group claiming responsibility.... is this not a another surefire spatial disorientation case? I guess we'll know soon.

bm

Second aircraft involved in Lebanon ET409 crash ?
 

Second aircraft involved
 

How does this:

square with this?

SoS

It doesn't. At this stage nothing but wild speculation.

Odyssey Explorer has been intensely working at 33.7422N 035.4062E after briefly passing over the deep locations. The tracks shown here are all within 100 feet of this position.

Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and Positions

The depth here is just 159 feet. The debris field must be tightly defined rather than widely dispersed as suggested earlier.

A bit of news . . . .
ET409 crash: Should the search for victims continue or stop?

February 16, 2010 ⋅ News Brief
Shiite Ulamas ( Muslim scholars) are likely to issue a Fatwa, or Islamic ruling, to end the search for the remaining victims of the Ethiopian plane flight ET409 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea last Jan. 25th killing all 90 people on board.
The Ulamas, tend to believe that the “sea, in itself, is a legitimate graveyard,” and therefore, search operations can stop.
Ulamas’ viewpoint and expected fatwa are likely to gain support of political and Shiite authorities.
Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan, President of the Higher Shiite Council however, is not in favor of ending the search until all remains of victims are found
In a statement issued late Monday, Qabalan stressed” the need to recover all the bodies from the sea so that we can carry out our duty of burying the victims in the soil.”
Qabalan urged the Lebanese army and security forces to carry on efforts to pull all the remains of victims from the sea off the coast of Naameh south of Beirut.
The families of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash victims are expected to meet with Sheikh Qabalan at 2pm on Wednesday.

Because this is how investigations are supposed to be conducted as per the Lebanese civil aviation.

Just like the BA038 which you seem to particularly appreciate?

Over the sea at night
 

BoeingMEL: you are not the only one asking those questions.

976 people since 2000 have lost their lives in seven mishaps that occurred over the sea at night. The details are listed here: Another one in the sea at night - Learmount

If the scale on AIS is accurate, the debris field is 600' x 600' and only two miles offshore.

SoS

If you go back a few more years, it's more than that. Remember the AeroPeru and Birgenair flights that took off at night with blocked pitots or static ports. Both lost.

SoS

You are correct. However the search is progressing in a NE direction as the time goes on so it may be a bigger field when its all covered.

I thought that the difference between Odyssey and Ocean Alert was deep water capabilities on the Odyssey. I hope we will hear more about what they are accomplishing. Anyone know if the International Committee previously mentioned as doing the investigation does press conferences?

"The memory recorder from the crashed Ethiopian plane's second black box that was recovered on Tuesday has been sent to Paris for analysis.
The daily As-Safir on Wednesday said a report signed by all members of the investigation committee would likely come out in 48 hours after having completed verbatim transcription."

It would be unique if the International Committee released the report publicly. Typically the report gets sanitized by the single Country Investigator-in-Charge who is the first to release the sanitzed version.

Regardless, it's the Lessons-Learned that count and that may be left up to others to interpret.

Information Minister Tareq Mitri announced Thursday that "the government will issue a comprehensive report on the disaster of the Ethiopian jet mid-next week after informing the victims' families of the content."
"The commission investigating the crash of the Ethiopian plane will hand over a preliminary report to the government within the coming few days," Mitri said after the weekly Cabinet session.

That's in fact entirely according to ICAO Annex 13 covering Accident Investigation which says preliminary findings shall be released 30 days after the crash.