Ninety feared dead in plane crash
Aircraft went down off coast of Lebanon
January 25, 2010, 8:10 a.m.
STAFF REPORT
Aircraft joined rescue crews searching the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Lebanon on Monday where an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed with 90 people aboard.
By midday Monday, crews had found 23 bodies, but no survivors, the state-run Lebanese National News Agency reported.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced a day of mourning for the victims of the crash, ordering all government departments to close, the agency reported. He praised security forces and the Red Cross for their efforts in the aftermath of the accident.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 left Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut about 2:30 a.m. and was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
It disappeared from radar a few minutes after takeoff, according to officials.
The Boeing 737-800 had seven crew members and 82 passengers - 51 Lebanese nationals, 23 Ethiopians, two Britons and citizens from Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Canada, Russia and France, the airline said.
Among the passengers was the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, said Anne Charlotte of the French embassy.
The plane crashed about 3.5 km (2.1 miles) west of the town of Na'ameh. Na'ameh is 15 km (9 miles) south of Beirut.