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A Lebanese soldier carries remains of the Ethiopian Airlines plane on the beach this morning
A woman is comforted by a friend as she collapses in despair at Beirut airport upon news that a relative was aboard the Ethiopian Airlines plane that plunged into the sea
Lebanese rescuers scan the sea as search operations continued off the coast
A Lebanese commando pulls a body from the water into a helicopter above the area where the plane went down
Relatives were ushered to a VIP area of the airport to anxiously wait for news of their loved ones
Dozens of distraught relatives begin to arrive at Beirut airport
A passenger jet takes off while rescue boats can be seen in the background searching for survivors
An ambulance, centre, rushes to Beirut airport amid fears that all 90 people on board the Ethiopian flight could be dead
Two Britons were on board an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed shortly after take-off from the Lebanese capital Beirut, it has been confirmed.
The Boeing 737 bound for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia fell into the Mediterranean in a ball of fire with 90 people on board.
At least 14 bodies have been recovered, and there has been no news of anyone surviving the crash.
The Foreign Office said one British national and one with dual nationality were on board Flight ET409.
A British RAF helicopter, based in Cyprus, has joined the Lebanese authorities' search-and-rescue operation.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Our thoughts are with the families of all those involved in this tragedy."
Passenger list
Ethiopian Airlines said there were 82 passengers and 8 crew on board.
The passenger list included two Britons, 51 Lebanese, 23 Ethiopians, and one person each from Canada, France, Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
The cause of the crash is being investigated, but police have ruled out terrorism.
Lebanon's transport minister Ghazi Aridi said the plane took off at about 0230 local time (0030 GMT), and crashed two miles off the coast.
An Ethiopian Airlines statement said: "A team is already working on gathering all pertinent information.
"An investigative team has already been dispatched to the scene and we will release further information as further updates are received."
Both Northwest Airlines pilots have been suspended while the incident is investigated
A Northwest Airlines flight carrying 144 passengers from San Diego to Minneapolis lost contact with air controllers for more than an hour and overflew its destination by 150 miles, officials said on Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the two pilots of Flight 188, an Airbus A320, told authorities after landing safely on Wednesday night that they had become distracted during a "heated discussion about airline policy."
The NTSB said on Thursday it would review the plane's flight data and voice recorders and interview the pilots. Among other issues, investigators will explore crew fatigue to see if the pilots were tired, the NTSB said.
Northwest is owned by Delta Air Lines, which said the pilots had been relieved from active flying pending completion of the NTSB investigation and an internal probe by Delta.
Safety board investigations can take several months to complete.
The plane was flying at 37,000 feet when it lost radio contact between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. EDT.
Flight 188 was 150 miles off course by the time the crew re-established communications and requested permission to turn around, officials said.
Airport police boarded the plane in Minneapolis to ensure there had not been a hijacking or other criminal activity, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport said.
Military authorities were alerted during the incident and put fighter jets on stand-by status temporarily, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.
It was the second unusual incident involving a U.S. airliner this week.
On Monday, a Delta Boeing 767 with 182 passengers landed on a taxiway instead of its assigned runway at Atlanta's Hartsfield airport. The taxiway, which was parallel to the runway, was active but cleared of ground traffic.
Aviation chiefs in the U.S. are investigating to see if the pilots of a passenger jet with 144 people on board fell asleep as it prepared to land.
A Northwest Airlines flight overshot its intended destination by 150 miles before the crew realised they had missed their airport.
The two pilots of the Airbus A320 told investigators they been involved in a 'heated' argument in the cockpit and had become distracted.
But air traffic controllers said they were unable to raise the pilots for over an hour as it flew at 37,000ft across the state of Minnesota.
Officials are concerned that the pilots, who have not been named, dropped off while the jet was on auto-pilot.
A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that they are looking into pilot fatigue as a reason for the overshoot.
'We will look into fatigue issues,' said NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said.
The Northwest Airlines flight was enroute from San Diego, California, to Minneapolis on Wednesday evening.
Controllers were unable to speak with the pilot or co-pilot to give them information about their landing approach as they neared the end of the four hour flight.
The radio silence continued for an hour and 18 minutes.The jet, with 144 passengers and crew on board, was tracked on radar.
The aircraft flew over its intended destination, Minneapolis St Paul International airport, and continued northeast for approximately 150 miles over the next 16 minutes.
The airport's controllers then re-established communication with crew members, who said they had become distracted.
FBI agents and police boarded the plane after it landed safely in Minneapolis amid fears of a hijacking.
Passenger Andrea Allmon said: 'We landed, everyone got ready to get off the plane and suddenly police were getting on the plane and telling us to sit down.
'They went into the cockpit, looked around and then told everyone to get off the plane.'
Both pilots have been suspended while the NTSB investigate the incident. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been taken away for analysis.
Northwest Airlines,which is part of Delta Air Lines, said they were cooperating with the FAA and NTSB in their investigation as well as conducting their own internal investigation.
An airline spokesman said: 'The pilots have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations.'
It would not be the first time a pilot has fallen asleep at the controls.
Early in 2008, the two pilots of a go! Airlines flight from Honolulu to Hilo, Hawaii fell asleep for at least 18 minutes while in the air.
The plane flew past the airport and out to sea before air traffic controllers finally were able to reach the pilots, who turned the plane around.
Image above show rescuer pulling up corpses from Hudson River.Believed upto 9 may have dead from the mid air collisions.
Rescue looking for debris , survivors and corpses.
Fox show the footing of the occurs.The plane hit the back of the helicopter.
Map above show the location of the midair accidents.
Police and emergency crews continued their search for wreckage and bodies in the Hudson River a day after a small plane collided with a sightseeing helicopter carrying a group of Italian tourists, apparently killing nine people.
Fox News Channel
A plane and helicopter crashed above the Hudson River today, sending debris into the river and onto the Hoboken, N.J., waterfront.
Based on preliminary eyewitness reports of the low-altitude crash, which occurred in good weather, officials said the single-engine propeller plane apparently smashed into the rear of the helicopter as the two aircraft were flying in the same direction, scattering debris in the river and on the New Jersey waterfront. The accident took place in a narrow corridor over the river reserved for general aviation and other aircraft operating under visual flight rules -- and no requirement to communicate with air-traffic controllers.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the crash as "not survivable.'' Three bodies and helicopter wreckage were recovered before search efforts were halted for the night Saturday. Three hours after the crash, which took place around noon, the National Transportation Safety Board was on scene to direct the investigation. Investigators resumed their search at daybreak Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
Six people were on board the helicopter which plummeted into the river. Three people were believed to have been travelling in the plane
Cause of Accident
Mayor Bloomberg emphasized during a news conference that both aircraft were flying under so-called "see and avoid" rules that don't require monitoring by controllers despite the surrounding busy airspace and several major airports in the vicinity. "This could have happened over a cornfield as well as the Hudson River," he said.
Commercial and private jets are restricted from flying at such low altitudes. They follow takeoff and approach routes to metropolitan airports that take them well above the visual-flight corridor over the Hudson.
Hudson River corridor is a popular shortcut for northbound and southbound flights to and from New England. "It's scenic too," which helps make the fly zone a busy area. Complicating matters, while airplanes must fly along the river, helicopters, which aren't bound by the same rules, might cross it.
Helicopter pilots and others who frequently fly the Hudson sightseeing route—which keeps them under 1,000 feet--rely on special procedures, including broadcasting on and monitoring a dedicated radio frequency designed to make pilots aware of nearby traffic. Such transmissions are recommended but aren't required. It isn't clear whether the small plane's pilot was using the special frequency.
Witness Accounts
Witnesses to the crash described how debris from the two aircraft disappeared within seconds beneath the water's surface, and rescue workers soon determined that there were no survivors, officials said.
According to eye-witness reports, it appeared that the helicopter had just taken off from a mid-town helipad and turned south down the river when the plane smashed into it, shearing off a rotor. Both aircraft shed debris as they plummeted into the water.
There were unconfirmed reports that the plane may have lost part of a wing just before the smash. It had taken off from Teterboro, a private airport in New Jersey, a few minutes earlier
"It would appear that the airplane ran into the backside of the helicopter," Bloomberg(New York Mayor) said, saying the precise cause of the collision may not be known for days or weeks, pending an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The helicopter belonged to Liberty Harbour Sightseeing Tours which runs popular aerial tours of major New York landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty. The weather conditions were clear and calm at the time of the crash just before midday.
The Hoboken all-stars girls soccer team was in the middle of practice on Saturday when the goalie looked up and saw two aircraft flying into each other in the clear skies overhead.\
-Youth soccer coach Leo Pellegrini, orange shirt, is surrounded by reporters as he recounts his views the horrifying crash.-
"There was a big cracking sound and the propeller from the helicopter flew off and the plane's wing broke off," 12-year-old Marina Wardell said.
"The plane was swirling and landed a little bit aways. The helicopter went head first and plunged into the water.
"Then, like five seconds later, it sunk. It was like it was from a movie! It was shocking to see it actually happening."
For a moment, the dozen girls scattered across Sinatra Soccer Field cowered, fearing they were going to be hit by debris.
Then, when it was clear they were safe, they ran over to the fence along the river and pressed up against it, craning to see if anyone survived.
"I just saw the pieces floating around. It happened really fast. I didn't see anyone," Marina said. On the other side of the sparkling, crowded river, Jahangir Alam was selling empanadas and sodas at a Hudson River Park refreshment stand.
"The plane and the helicopter were flying at each other and they turned away not to crash. But the plane hit the back of the helicopter," said Alam, 49, a Bangladeshi immigrant who lives in Queens.
"My first thought was, 'someone save the people.'"
At a cafe on Little W. 12th St., Alanna Duffy, 29, saw huge chunks of mangled aircraft falling across the sky.
"I just saw the propeller twisting through the air," she said. "The body was doing a nosedive. It went right in the water."
Retired machinist Gabriel Stise, 78, was eating lunch on a shady riverside bench in Hoboken when the plane went over his head.
"It didn't sound right. It was loud. It was very low," he said.
"It came down and just sank. I didn't see anyone in the water. They must have gone down with it. There's so much room up there. How could this happen?"
Nearby, Hilda Igartua, 53, sat in her wheelchair talking on the phone as her husband, Angel Vacqez, 50, fished happily.
"I saw the plane hit the helicopter," she said.
"The helicopter went spinning down, breaking into pieces. I saw debris falling everywhere. My husband got scared and pushed me back. He was screaming."
"It sounded like putting a fork in a blender, but louder, like fireworks," said Grendaly Torres, who was helping her mother sell jewelry in the park.
Past Accidents
In October 2006, a private plane that took off from Teterboro ended up flying into a high-rise apartment building along Manhattan's East River. New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were killed in the crash and it seriously injured one person on the ground. In the wake of that accident, authorities restricted private planes from flying certain routes over the East River.
Seven months ago, the same river was the scene of a spectacular aircraft accident that resulted in no loss of life. In January, a US Airways flight taking off from LaGuardia Airport slammed into a flock of birds and lost power in both engines. The plane crash-landed in the Hudson River, roughly half a mile from Saturday's crash, and all 155 people on board were pulled to safety.
Two years ago, a Liberty helicopter fell 500 feet from the sky into the same river during a sightseeing trip. The pilot was credited with safely landing the chopper on the water and helping evacuate her seven passengers.
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--NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Statement On Helicopter & Small Plane [Piper PA-32] Crash Over New York City's Hudson River --
Investigators probing the deadly crash of Air France flight 447 over the Atlantic are running out of time to find the flight data recorders which could prove crucial to working out what caused the disaster.
The U.S. Navy has contributed two high-tech acoustic devices -- known as towed pinger locators -- which have been attached to French tug boats and can search to a maximum depth of 20,000ft (6,100 meters).
The firm which makes the recorders, Honeywell Aerospace, has told CNN it has a 100 percent recovery record from air accidents.Honeywell said it was hard to estimate how much battery life the locator beacon on the recorders had, as it depended on the conditions, but it is typically around 30 days.
In another strange twist to this tragic saga, it’s been revealed that maintenance technicians had been summoned to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on June 1 to replace the Pitot tubes on the Airbus A330 aircraft. The jet, of course, never arrived, instead crashing into the ocean northeast of Brazil, killing 228 people.
Charles Bremner, reporting in the TimesOnline, wrote that Air France officials had confirmed that a maintenance team had been dispatched to the airport after the aircraft sent an automated message reporting a problem with its Pitot tubes. The tubes, sometimes called Pitot probes, are used to measure the airspeed of aircraft.
Rather than appearing to be a rapid response to a problem, Air France’s action instead may be viewed as damning evidence that the airline reacted too slowly to an issue it had known about for months. The website eurocockpit.com, produced by professional pilots, has posted a document which it says originated in June 2008 that shows Air France was aware of problems with the Pitot tubes on Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft.
Faulty Pitot probe readings could have caused the aircraft to automatically fly at the wrong speed for the weather conditions in the stormy Inter-tropical Convergence Zone near the Equator.
French authorities have today revealed that Air France Flight 447 sent 24 error messages shortly before the plane disappeared during the flight between Rio de Janeiro and Paris with 228 people on board. They also said that the plane’s auto-pilot was not active, although they say that from the error messages it is impossible to determine the reason for it being inactive. The crash is said to be the world’s worst aviation disaster since 2001.
Rescuers have long since given up on attempting to find any survivors instead now trying to locate and recover the wreckage of the flight and more importantly the flight data recorders, without which they say they may never know what happened to the flight. The process of recovery is expected to be difficult with the seabed reaching depths of 3,000 to 4,000 meters. Both American and French specialist equipment has been sent to the area with the aim of recovering the recorders, however French officials say that the locator beacons attached to the boxes could possibly have become detached by the force of the impact.
Most bodies were found without clothing
Most of the bodies were found without clothing, which could possibly have been taken off by the wind during their fall (further evidence that they were sucked out of the plane). It's therefore possible that the bodies which have been found were those sucked from the plane, and that the majority of the remaining bodies are fixed to their seats in the hull of the plane (presumably underwater).
No burns
Prelimanary analysis of the bodies indicates that they didn't suffer any burns, indicating that there was not an explosion and that the plane broke apart mid-air. No water in lungs, multiple fractures
The bodies had no water in the their lungs, indicating they did not die from drowning, but had multiple fractures.
Bodies delivered to Recife
Bodies will be delivered to the airport at Fernando de Noronha island and then to Recife for identification. Rescuers believe that some bodies may have been consumed by sharks or have sunk.
Bodies widely dispersed
The bodies have been found dispersed as much as 85 miles apart, indicating that the plane probably broke up over several minutes whist in the air, with the passengers sitting helpless and occassionally some being sucked out. Warm water means bodies sink quicker
An intact body will typically float for 2 or 3 weeks. The warmer the water the quicker the process of a body surfacing, floating and then sinking once again; as a result of the increased amount of marine life which breaks the bodies down. The water in which the bodies of flight 447 lies, is 28 degrees celsius.
Personal items
Numerous other personal items belonging to the passengers have been found, but authorities are not revealing what they are. All personal items are being handed to Air France, who will deliver them to the families of the Flight 447 victims.
Two passengers on terrorist watch list
French secret servicemen have established that 2 passengers on board flight 447, are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic.
Italian who missed AF447 dies in car crash
Johanna Ganthaler, an Italian lady from the Bolzano-Bozen Province - South Tyrol, was lucky enough to arrive late for AF447 and missed the flight. Her and her husband Kurt caught a flight later in the day from Rio de Janeiro to Munich. However, like in the movie Final Destination, fate finally caught up with Johanna and she died in a head-on collission when their car swerved into a truck coming from the opposite direction. The accident occurred near Kufstein, Austria. Kurt Ganthaler was also injured in the accident.
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