Ethiopia Airlines Flight 409
25 January 2010
Stewarts Law are investigating the circumstances of this tragic accident, given its potential similarities with and our ongoing involvement in the crash of Kenya Airways Flight 507.
On 25 January 2010, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed moments after taking off in stormy weather from Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut at about 02:30hrs.
Flight 409 with 82 passengers and 7 crew members was headed for Addis Ababa but disappeared a few minutes after takeoff. Initial reports indicate that the aircraft built in 2002 suffered an onboard fire or engine fire which may have caused it to crash. Based upon our research and investigation into the crash of Kenya Airways KQ507 (also a Boeing 737-800) the aircraft's spoilers and/or altimeters may have been faulty. A faulty altimeter also contributed to the crash of another 737 of the same type in Amsterdam in February 2009, according to an interim report issued a week after that accident.
Other recent 737 crashes:
February 2009 - Turkish Airlines - Amsterdam. Cause: unclear but altimeter was faulty
September 2008 - Aeroflot-Nord - Russia. Cause: tired pilots became disorientated
August 2008 - Itek Air - Kyrgyzstan. Cause: loss of cabin pressure
May 2007 - Kenya Airways - Cameroon. Cause: still under investigation.