All 90 feared dead in Ethiopian plane crash
Beirut, Jan 25 (DPA) At least 28 bodies have been recovered after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed off the coast of Lebanon Monday, with no apparent sign of survivors among the 90 passengers and crew. The Boeing 737-800, carrying 83 passengers and seven crew, crashed into the Mediterranean some four minutes after taking off from the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport in the capital, Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said. ‘The control tower was assisting the pilot of the plane on takeoff and suddenly lost contact for no known reason,’ Aridi told reporters. Weather conditions were reportedly bad when the plane went down some 3.5 km west of the coastal village of Na’ameh. Army and naval rescue units were searching for survivors alongside a UN Maritime Task Force, which included two German boats. ‘The weather is not helping us at all,’ a member of the rescue team said. ‘But we hope to find some survivors.’ An Ethiopian Airlines official at the airport meanwhile told DPA there were ‘no reports of survivors found’. Earlier local media and Arab channels had said seven survivors had been found. Rescuers said they found 28 bodies, at least 15 of the victims still strapped to their seats. Army patrol boats were seen scouring the waters around the site where the plane went down. The wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon was reported to have been on the plane. ‘On the passengers list we saw the name of Marla Sanchez Pietton, the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon,’ a …