Pilot of ill-fated Ethiopian plane flew into storm despite warning

The pilot of an Ethiopian airliner that crashed off the Lebanese coast did not respond to a request to change direction before contact was cut....

The pilot of an Ethiopian airliner that crashed off the Lebanese coast did not respond to a request to change direction before contact was cut,the Lebanese Transport Minister said on Tuesday. He said it was too early,however,to draw any conclusion of pilot error.

Reuters quoted Ghazi Aridi as saying that the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane made a sharp turn before disappearing off the radar in stormy conditions early Monday. Few minutes later,the plane plunged into the sea with 90 people on board,all of whom are feared dead. The control tower asked him to go in a certain direction,but the pilot was not responsive,then communication was cut off and the plane disappeared off the radar, Aridi said. We dont know why he did that or what happened, he said.

Lebanon Defence Minister Elias Murr made the same point. A command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm,but the plane went in the opposite direction, Murr said in a television interview.

The Boeing 737 is considered one of the safest planes. Still,over 15 years it has been involved in incidents and crashes linked to problems with a valve in the rudder assembly,AP reported. The valve would malfunction and cause the rudder to turn independently of the pilots commands. It was,however,important not to jump to conclusions until the data recorders were found.

Search teams,including a US naval vessel as well as European and UN peacekeeping ships,scoured the Mediterranean coast for the victims and missing flight recorders. Flight ET409 was headed to Addis Ababa.

On suggestions that the plane should have been stopped from flying in the stormy weather conditions,Information Minister Tareq Mitri said there was no reason to do so as other planes had been landing and taking off before and after it.

Officials said 14 bodies,including those of two toddlers,had been recovered.

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Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Girma Wake said he believed search teams would locate the flight recorders,referred to as black boxes. The eight-year-old plane last underwent a maintenance check on December 25 and had no technical problems.