Ethiopian Airlines jet which crashed, was a secondhand bought from Ireland

Michael O'Leary CEO of the Irish airways reveals Ryanair may have owned Ethiopian Airlines jet which crashed, killing 90 people

By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
Last updated at 9:15 PM on 26th January 2010

The Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed off Lebanon was used by Ryanair until last April, its chief executive Michael O'Leary revealed yesterday.

He said the budget airline had sold the Boeing 737 - serial number 29935 - in April last year and it had previously been used on a number of its European routes.

The Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that the aircraft was a former Ryanair plane that had logged 17,750 flight hours in its seven years of service.

And planespotters came forward to say they had photographed the jet at British airports between 2002 and last year.

Mr O'Leary denied any liability in the accident, which saw 90 passengers killed, including Britons Afif Krisht, a 57-year-old businessman from Plymouth, and Kevin Grainger, 24.

'What happened we don't know,' he said.

'It's a bit like selling your car and 11 months later the person driving it has a crash. It had nothing to do with us.'

The accident happened on Monday after the plane had taken off from Beirut bound for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.

Witnesses described seeing the plane crash into the sea and explode in a 'ball of fire'. Investigators said it had left the airport on the wrong route and flown straight into a storm.

Search operation: A plane takes off from taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport today as wreckage is cleared from the coast

It comes as Lebanon’s transport minister revealed the pilot on board the flight went in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the Beirut control tower.

Ghazi Aridi said he was told ‘to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar’ after taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.

All 90 people on board are feared dead - with so far 34 bodies pulled from the sea - after the plane went down in flames around at 2.30am during a night of lightning and thunderstorms.

Lebanese officials have ruled out terrorism or ‘sabotage’. The plane was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Wreckage: Army officials looking for the plane's black box to determine the cause of the crash hunt through the debris which washed up overnight

Searchers are trying to locate the plane's black box and flight data recorder, which are key to determining the cause of the crash.

Today, rescue teams and equipment sent from the U.N. and countries including the U.S. and Cyprus are helping in the search.

Pieces of the plane and other debris have been washing ashore, and emergency crews have pulled a large, one-metre-long piece of the plane from the water.

An aviation analyst familiar with the investigation said Beirut air traffic control was guiding the Ethiopian flight through the thunderstorms for the first three minutes of its flight.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said this was standard procedure by Lebanese controllers to assist airliners departing from the airport in poor weather conditions.

The Boeing 737-800 jet - which was eight years old - had its last routine maintenance on December, 25, last year, according to Ethiopian Airlines

It is unclear exactly what happened in the last two minutes of flight, the official added.

Patrick Smith, a U.S.-based airline pilot and aviation writer, said there were many possible causes for the crash.

‘Had the plane encountered extreme turbulence, or had it suffered a powerful lightning strike that knocked out instruments while penetrating strong turbulence, then structural failure or loss of control, followed by an in-flight breakup, are possible causes,’ he said.

Ethiopian Airlines said on Monday that the pilot had more than 20 years of experience.

It did not give the pilot's name or details of other aircraft the pilot had flown.

Ethiopian Airlines says the eight-year-old plane was leased from a division of U.S. financing company CIT Group and had its last routine maintenance on December, 25 last year.

It said the jet, a recent version of Boeing's best-selling model, left the U.S. factory in 2002.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246179/Michael-OLeary-reveals-Ryanair-owned-Ethiopian-Airlines-jet-crashed-killing-90-people.html#ixzz0dlEPUT1L

Man dies on flight from Ethiopia, body taken off board at IGI

Geeta Gupta
Tags : Ethiopian man died on flight, delhi
Posted: Tuesday , Jan 26, 2010 at 0037 hrs New Delhi:

A tanzanian national on a flight from Addis Ababa to Beijing died on Saturday on board the Ethiopian Airways, which had a stopover at IGI Airport here.
Since Musak Suleman Amir, 36, did not have an Indian visa, his body was kept at the airside for over three hours till the Tanzanian Embassy was contacted to verify his details.
According to airport officials, Amir complained of feeling uneasy two hours after the flight took off from the Ethiopian capital — he reportedly collapsed inside the airborne-plane.
The Ethiopian Airways flight (ET 604) had a stopover at Delhi, and Amir’s body was be de-boarded at IGI Airport. Airport sources said he was declared dead by doctors after arrival at the city airport around 4.30 pm, and the police followed the standard operating procedure of informing the concerned embassy.
Amir’s body is now awaiting postmortem at Safdurjung Hospital, and further formalities would be performed only once the relatives get in touch with the airport authorities in India, a senior official said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) O P Mishra confirmed the incident. “The deceased person’s body has been preserved at the Safdurjung Hospital mortuary,” he said. “The concerned embassy has been able to contact his relatives, who are trying to get here.”
DCP Mishra said postmortem and other formalities would be done only after someone claims the body.
Unwilling to comment whether it was a case of natural death, DCP Mishra said the cause of death would be known only after the postmortem is conducted.

N. Korean Embassy Worker in Ethiopia Defects to S. Korea

By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter An employee at the North Korean Embassy in Ethiopia defected to South Korea last year seeking asylum, according to a report Tuesday. An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade did neither confirm the report nor deny it, only saying that it did not publicize every single case of defection via a third country. The 40-year-old defector, who is also a medical doctor identified as a Kim, rushed into the South Korean Embassy in mid-October, the 24-hour news channel YTN reported, quoting an unidentified diplomatic source. He stayed at the embassy for two to three weeks, the report said. The North Korean ambassador there said in a phone call that it might not be good if the South Korean Embassy kept hiding Kim. The North Korean Embassy also sent cars and had them line up in front of the South Korean Embassy in protest against sheltering the defector, the report said. The Seoul government dispatched a ranking official to the African country and brought the asylum seeker here in early November. In a separate development, the foreign ministry's task force will help North Korean defectors staying in foreign countries enter South Korea, ministry sources said. The team, established under the ministry's Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Bureau, will be in operation in June at the earliest, they said.Team members will hold negotiations with officials of foreign countries where North Koreans are waiting for approval to be allowed to enter South Korea. An ambassador or consul will be dispatched to the country, if necessary, to assist them in traveling to the South, the sources said.ksy@koreatimes.co.kr

Meles has been told rightly that these elections will be an important test

The Irish Times - Monday, January 25, 2010
Ethiopia's rulers
ETHIOPIA’S MELES ZENAWI, like Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, was among a new generation of African leaders who came to power in the early 1990s whose role in kicking out murderous regimes and commitment to democratic values was much admired. It seemed like Africa was fiinding a new voice. And there is no doubt that the Ethiopia Meles rules today is a far cry from the famine-ridden brutalised country of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. But on the human rights front Meles does have questions to answer.
Facing elections that will certainly see him re-elected prime minister, he can boast an economy growing at 7 per cent and dramatic improvements in health and education standards. As he tells Mary Fitzgerald in the foreign pages today: “We have succeeded in proving that Ethiopia can grow at Asian growth rates,” rekindling hope “in the possibility that Ethiopia will not for long be the poster child for poverty in the world.”
There is some way to go. Ethiopia remains an important recipent of Ireland’s aid, a “programme coutry”, where we contribute tens of millions to a food safety net programme that feeds 12 million people in return for public works. A further five million people are under threat of famine in the months ahead. Malnutrition is widespread with 47 per cent of children under five suffering from wasting or stunting. Over half the population lives below the national poverty line.
Donor countries have come under fire, however, from human rights groups who complain they are not sufficiently vocal about abuses. The 2005 elections tarnished Meles’s reputation with violence in which some 200 died and opposition leaders and activists were jailed. Although freed temporarily, Birtukan Mideksa, the 36-year-old head of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party (UDJ), has been sent back to jail for life after authorities claimed she flouted the terms of her pardon by denying that she had “expressed remorse”. Her release would go a long way to reassuring civil society about the fairness of forthcoming elections.
Meles is also unrepentant or in denial about widespread concern over recent anti-NGO legislation and the documented use of torture by police and military officials in official and secret detention facilities across Ethiopia. All are issues which Irish diplomats say are the subject of regular “frank” bilateral and multilateral discusssions with the government. Meles has been told rightly that these elections will be an important test of his democratic commitment.

Capitain Habtamu is the name of the pilot

Editors Note: Dear Ethiopians we pass our heartfelt condolences and sorrow to all those killed by the plane crash.

Apparently, we have been informed that the name of the pilot was CapitainHabtamu.And the story of the crash according to our sources goes like this.

Habtamu ,who was in Beirut already when Boeing 737-800 arrived in Lebabon after a long flight from Addis Abeba, was not the man in duty to fly the plane back to Addis. However,he asked if he could fly back the plane to Addis as he wants to return to Addis Abeba soon."please let me fly this route and you will come with the next" was what Habtamu said to the official pilot.Although, the Airlines crew and the former pilot insisted that he shouldn't, Habtamu flew the plane and shortly after 5 minutes in the air,it crashed into the sea.

Article-Lebanese authorities have recovered 34 bodies after an Ethiopian Airlines jet caught fire and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea early Monday morning.

Ninety people were on board the Boeing 737-800 -- including one Canadian citizen -- when it caught fire shortly after takeoff from a Beirut airport. It crashed into the sea shortly after 2:30 a.m., local time.

Lebanon's public works and transportation minister, Ghazi Aridi, said the plane went down about 3.5 kilometres off the coast.

The cause of the crash is not immediately known, though Lebanon has seen stormy weather since Sunday evening.

Aridi told reporters "the weather undoubtedly was very bad."

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said terrorism is not suspected in the crash of Flight 409, which was headed to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

"Sabotage is ruled out as of now," he said.

Pieces of the plane and other debris have washed ashore in the aftermath of the crash, including passenger seats, a baby sandal and bottles of medicine. A Lebanese defence official told The Associated Press that several children are among the dead.

Aridi said the plane's 83 passengers included 54 Lebanese citizens, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one Syrian, one Canadian of Lebanese origin, one Russian of Lebanese origin, a French woman and two Britons of Lebanese origin.

The nationality of the plane's seven crew members was not immediately released.

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs released a statement indicating that a flight manifest indicated "there was one Canadian citizen on board the flight." The department did not provide any additional details about the individual.

The French Embassy reported that the wife of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to Lebanon, was also on board the plane.

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Ato Girma Wake told reporters in Addis Ababa that he had no information about the fate of the people on board the plane, nor about the cause of the crash.

Wake said the plane had been serviced Dec. 25 and passed inspection.

He also said the plane had been leased in September from CIT Aerospace, a U.S.-company based in New York.

Wake also said the airline would be sending accident and crisis management experts to Beirut.

Service Sector Takesover Ethiopian Agrarian Economy

Editors Note:The figure is an indication that easy- profit making businesses such as PLCs are mushrooming like anything.Fo r a country that is not able to feed her population, service sector growth is like the cart before the horse.This is What TPLF tells us : '' look at what i did the modern buildings ,roads and state of art services provided in Addis Ababa" but why don't tell us about the 13 million hungrily starving population?It is a sign of distorted economy. The service sector is full of non-tradables. There is no real production involved in it. It just only end up in lots of spending and lots of money chasing for few agricultural and industrial goods(hence inflation).It is an indication that we are far from feeding our selves.This is also what Meles calss our double digit economic growth while the nation is totally food insecure.

BY NEW BUSINESS ETHIOPIA The fast growing service sector of Ethiopia for the first time takes over the agriculture dependent economy of the East African nation.

Now, the service sector contributes 45.1 percent to Ethiopia’s Gross Domestic Production (GDP) for the fiscal year ended June 2009 (from July 2008 to June 2009). Meanwhile, agriculture sector, which was dominant in the economy, followed the service sector by contributing 43.2 percent to GDP.

According to GDP data released by the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) this week, during this period, the service sector grew by 14 percent while agriculture was limited to 9.9 percent. To the contrary, six years ago agriculture’s annual growth rate was 16.9 percent while the service sector was growing at 6.3 percent.

Industry sector of the nation, which has been contributing between 12.9 to 14 percent to GDP over the last eight years, has now contributed 13 percent to the national GDP during for fiscal year ended.

Eight years ago, Agriculture was leading the service sector by more than 10 percent until the gap between the two narrowed to one percent last year.

Ethiopia’s GDP for the year ended stood at 336.1 billion birr (around 25 billion USD) at current market price from it was around 77 billion birr eight years ago, according to MoFED’s data.

Stratex International reports further positive gold finds in Ethiopia

18 January 2010

Stratex International Plc, the AIM-quoted mineral explorer working on world-class gold and base metal deposits in Turkey and Ethiopia, has reported further encouraging gold results from its exploration programme on the 37 sq km Shehagne Exclusive Exploration Licence in northern Ethiopia.

As a result of the latest positive exploration results Stratex is proceeding with its previously announced option to acquire 60% of the licence from Plus Markets-listed Sheba Exploration by committing another £250,000 to exploration.

The latest channel-chip results define an extensive zone of gold mineralisation 900 metres in length and more than 200 metres in width within the Tsemmetti target area. The best intersections include 11 metres grading 4.39 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 40 metres grading 1.40 g/t gold. Results are still pending from a new zone discovered 800 metres to the north-north-west of the Tsemmetti area

The results follow initial channel-chip sampling last November, in which Stratex identified broad zones of gold mineralisation, with one 51 metre section grading 0.88 g/t gold – 17 metres of which graded 2.0 g/t gold.

Stratex’s executive chairman, David Hall said: “These positive results emphasise the significant potential of this new exploration frontier. In light of these results we will aggressively continue our option to acquire 60% of this exciting prospect through an expanded programme of geological mapping and sampling that will lead to prioritising drill targets for the latter part of the year.”

Elsewhere in 2010, Stratex is planning to widen its exploration activities in Ethiopia, particularly in relation to a new gold discovery, Megenta, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. It is also set to continue to advance gold discoveries in Turkey and fast-track its Inlice and Altintepe oxide-gold projects towards production with Turkish partners NTF.

Ethiopia says over 100 Oromo rebels lay down arms

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia has taken more than 100 Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels into custody after they surrendered and handed over a cache of arms, the government said through state media on Sunday.

A number of rebel groups operate in the Horn of Africa country, launching hit-and-run attacks and worrying potential investors in oil and gas exploration.

"Members of a political force operating under the name of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) handed over themselves to the government in an organised manner," state-run Ethiopian Television (ETV) reported.

The group included Lucho Burbura who has been one of the group's top military commanders and its head of foreign relations, ETV said.

The OLF did not immediately deny the reports but said on Sunday it had killed three Ethiopian troops and captured five in renewed fighting.

The OLF has fought for autonomy for its southern homeland since 1993. The Oromos are Ethiopia's largest ethnic group but have not held power in modern times.

The Ethiopian opposition says the government falsely accuses Oromo politicians of OLF membership as an excuse to arrest them before national elections in May.

Oromo politicians in the capital Addis Ababa, who did not want to be named, told Reuters on Sunday that the reports on state television looked credible.

A government official in neighbouring Kenya, who also asked not to be identified, told Reuters the OLF rebels had been hiding out on their side of the border"More than 103 fighters were brought here (Moyale) by hired trucks (and) taken to Ethiopia, where they gave all their guns and uniforms," the official said.

The official said Kenya was about to deploy thousands of troops to flush the rebels back into Ethiopia. He said Ethiopia would offer defectors amnesty.

Ethiopia -- which has a system of "ethnic federalism" under which major ethnic groups control the regions where they are the majority -- fights other separatist groups, including the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

Ogaden is eyed by foreign oil and gas companies who think its huge deserts might be rich in mineral deposits.

Analysts expect the rebels to try to disrupt the national elections.

Another 61775 acres Ethiopian land sold

Mumbai, Jan. 15

Ruchi Soya Industries, one of the leading edible oil processors, on Friday announced a major farm land acquisition in Ethiopia for soybean cultivation.

The company said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ethiopian Government for cultivation of soyabean and setting up a processing unit on 61775 acres in Ganmbella and Benishangul Gumaz States on a lease basis for 25 years.

It has an option to increase the area under cultivation to 123,550 acres. However, it did not reveal investment details.

Looking overseas

"Ethopia has been chosen for agriculture investment considering the availability of labour, its strategic location and the Government support to boost foreign investment and development," Ruchi Soya informed the stock exchanges on Friday.

The company's closest competitor, KS Oils, in October last invested Rs 380 crore to acquire 53,000 acres at Kalimantan in Indonesia for palm plantation.

The funding was done through the wholly-owned subsidiary, KS Natural Resources, Singapore, which received a Rs 375-crore-infusion from the parent company.

The company had earlier bought 85,000 acres in two tranches in the last two years.

Constrained by the availability of cultivable land and hiccups in contract farming, Indian agricultural companies are looking at global destinations for backward integration.

Tie ups with State Govts

Ruchi Soya gained the potential to develop palm plantation of about 89,000 hectares by entering into tie-ups with various State governments.

The country would continue to depend on imports for its edible oil requirement.

The oilseeds coverage in the rabi season as on January 7 was lower by six per cent at 84.23 lakh hectares against 90.01 lakh hectares logged in the same period last year. Ms Shraddha Umarji, Research Analyst, NCDEX, said the dry weather had led to a decline in the acreage of the winter-sown oilseeds.

This may lead to a strain on edible oils supply, forcing imports.

The vegetable oil imports in November were at 753,966 tonnes (555,342 tonnes). Edible oils constituted 712,677 tonnes while non-edible oils import was at 41,289 tonnes.

"A lowering of import duties coupled with an increase in consumption and high price elasticity had resulted in large-scale imports," she said.

Ruchi Soya stocks on the BSE were down marginally by 0.73 per cent at Rs 95 and KS Oils closed down 0.60 per cent at Rs 75.

Ethiopian famine girl set to marry

Editors Note: Berhan from Tigray region who was seen as a showcase of famine

for many years is to get married.Her photo was taken 28 years ago by the then

member of TPLF(Meles Zenawi's ) party with the aim of discrediting the

then Socialist leadership of Mengistu.

A girl who became the symbol of the Ethiopian famine during Live Aid 25 years ago has got engaged.

Birhan Woldu, 28, is now "bursting with confidence" as she took part in a rings ceremony with her husband-to-be Birhanu Meresa, 29, the charity A-CET said.

Now Miss Woldu wants Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof to attend her wedding.

She told The Sun: "We haven't set a date for the wedding yet, but I would be so proud if Bob could be there.

"I now want to have two children, one girl and one boy, for my life to be complete."

David Stables, of the Leicester-based charity A-CET which helped with her education, said he had been tasked with inviting Geldof to the wedding.

He said: "They have a very lovely rapport. It's almost a father-daughter relationship with her, they get on so well."

He said Miss Woldu had "really changed" over the past six years and was now "bursting with confidence".

Miss Woldu, now a nurse, met her fiance at agricultural college six years ago, he said.

Dressed in a white veil and gown, she exchanged rings with him and received a blessing from a priest in Qwiha, northern Ethiopia, on Sunday.

Picture of the year

This will be true in 2010.

Ethiopia rejects warning of hunger-- BBC

An Ethiopian minister has denied reports that millions of people need urgent food aid after failed rains.

Disaster Prevention Minister Mikitu Kassa told the BBC that the government was helping those hit by the drought.

He was speaking after the US-funded Famine Early Warning System warned of increased hunger in parts of the country in the coming months.

Ethiopia has been extremely sensitive to images showing its people as starving since the famine of 1984-5.

Mr Mikitu said the report was "not evidence-based".

"It is baseless, it is contrary to the situation on the ground," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Fewsnet Ethiopia warning In pictures: Living with hunger

He admitted that 5.7 million people were currently getting food aid but argued that "in the Ethiopian context, there is no hunger, no famine" and that the situation was not as bad as in recent years.

"The government is taking action to mitigate the problems," he said.

The latest Famine Early Warning System (Fewsnet) projections show parts of the country in the extreme east, north-east and south-west as "extremely food insecure" - one level below that for a famine - in the period January-March 2010.

The worst affected areas are in the Somali, Gambella and Afar regions.

It says high food prices, poor livestock production and low agricultural wages will lead to increased hunger.

Its report comes after the failure of both rainy seasons in 2009.

Aid agency Oxfam recently warned that drought had hit parts of East Africa for the sixth year in a row.

Oxfam said Somalia's drought was the worst for 20 years, and November rainfall was less than 5% of normal in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia.

The UN has already said it is aiming to feed 20 million people in East Africa over the next six months.

Islamist Rebels in Somalia Threaten to Attack Ethiopia

Hezbal Islam an Islamist rebel movement fighting the Somali government vowed on Thursday to carry out attacks inside Ethiopia targeting military bases and government buildings. According to Sheikh Shuriye Afrah Sabriye, the group’s regional governor of Hiiraan region bordering with Ethiopia, Islamist forces are ready for a big war against Ethiopia, saying the attacks inside Ethiopia are imminent in the next few days, “Ethiopia is responsible for attacks on positions belonging to our forces outside the city of Beledweyn and in retaliation we will attack Ethiopian army bases inside Ethiopian territories, we are committed to do that” he said

He said that in the past several weeks there have been attacks on Islamist positions near the border accusing Ethiopian military of helping the Somali government forces who carried out those attacks on Islamist positions in the region. “The enemy is on the way–we will not to wait for them to come and kill us so we are taking the battle field into inside Ethiopia specially the city of Ferfer where the enemies prepare themselves before they attack us” he added. He said that Hezbal Islam leaders are currently engaged in the final discussions to fix the date and how to carry out attacks in Ethiopia. “For the past several days I have been in Mogadishu for consultations with Hezbal Islam’s commanders and we will soon invade on Ethiopia” he stated during Thursday’s press conference in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile he also declared war on the moderate-Islamist controlled cities of Guri El and Dhusmareb in central Somalia, accusing the moderate Islamist group of Ahlu sunna Wal Jama’a of supporting Ethiopia. The central Galgadud region is currently controlled by the Moderate Islamists with ties to Somali government but was a base for the slain Al-qaeda Boss in Somalia Aden Hashi Ayrow, who was killed in a US air strike on May 1st last year.