Global General

Lebanon minister: Pilot in crash flew opposite way

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-26 20:08

Lebanon minister: Pilot in crash flew opposite way
A plastic doll lies amidst other debris collected from the sea by soldiers and other emergency personnel, following the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, on Khalde beach south of Beirut, in Lebanon, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010. [Agencies]

BEIRUT: Lebanon's transportation minister says the pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines jet did not fly in the direction recommended by the Beirut control tower before the fatal crash.

Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the tower "asked him to correct, but then he did a very fast and strange turn."

He says it's not clear why that happened or whether it was beyond the pilot's control

Like most other airliners, the Boeing 737 also is equipped with its own onboard weather radar which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into the storm cells.

No survivors had been found more than 24 hours after the crash. Searchers are trying to find the plane's black box and flight data recorder.