General

Ethiopian airliner crashes near Beirut

“A flash that lit up the whole sea”; witnesses

An Ethiopian Airlines flight plunged into the Mediterranean Sea five minutes after taking off from Beirut on Sunday night. The Lebanese army says the plane lost contact with Lebanese air traffic controllers within minutes of taking off, and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has said that “a sabotage attack is unlikely.” So far, of the 90 passengers, 24 bodies have been recovered, some of them so unrecognizable that DNA testing will be needed to identify them.

Reuters

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