Lebanese Officials Say Jet Flew the Wrong Way Before Crash

Posted on Jan 26, 2010

bbc.co.uk

A piece of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane is recovered off the coast of Lebanon.

Despite being told to change course by air traffic controllers in Beirut, the pilot of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 that crashed Monday flew into the storm he was advised to avoid, Lebanese officials said Tuesday. 

BBC:

Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi told the Associated Press news agency that the Beirut control tower had asked the pilot “to correct his path, but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar”.

On Monday, Defence Minister Elias Murr said the pilot of the plane had failed to follow instructions on take-off from the control tower for unknown reasons.

“A command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction,” he said. “We do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot’s control.”

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