27 January,2010 08:23 AM IST | | Agencies
The Ethiopian jet that crashed into the sea off Beirut on Monday did not fly in the direction suggested by Beirut's control tower, Lebanese officials say.
Ministers said the pilot of the Ethiopian Airlines jet was asked to correct his course, but turned in the opposite direction. It is not clear why this happened, or if it was beyond the pilot's control.
The authorities continue to search for the bodies of the 90 people on board the plane, who are all feared dead. Thirty two bodies have been pulled from the sea so far.
Lebanese Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said that the Beirut control tower had asked the pilot "to correct his path, but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar".
On Monday, Defence Minister Elias Murr said the pilot of the plane had failed to follow instructions on take-off from the control tower for unknown reasons.
"A command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction," he said. "We do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot's control."
Ethiopian Airlines said late on Monday the pilot had more than 20 years of experience.
The Addis Ababa-bound flight plunged into the Mediterranean shortly after take-off from Beirut in a storm.
