Lebanese authorities have blamed pilot error for the 2010 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 in a fierce thunderstorm, that went down minutes after takeoff from Beirut almost two years ago.
The crashed killed all 90 people on board. Ethiopian Airlines immediately rejected the report, saying it was incomplete and biased.
“The truth lies in the Lebanese report, which reveals that the pilot holds full responsibility for the plane crash,’’ Lebanese Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said.
In the conclusions, the report, produced by the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority, said that the probable causes of the accident were the "flight crew's mismanagement of the aircraft's speed, altitude, headings and attitude through inconsistent flight control inputs resulting in loss of control".
The night departure and course changes to avoid weather, combined with the captain's relative inexperience as pilot-in-command on the type, may have led to the captain "reaching a situation of loss of situational awareness similar to a subtle incapacitation and the [first officer's] failure to recognise it or to intervene accordingly," the report said.
During the brief flight, the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder captured two "prolonged" stick shaker alarms of 27s and 26s as the aircraft entered stall situations, 11 aural "bank angle" warnings and a final overspeed warning towards the end of the 737's descent.
According to the summary there were no mechanical defects on the airframe and both CFM International CFM56-7BE engines appeared to be operating normally.
The Lebanese report countered suggestions from the Ethiopians that the crew had a wealth of experience. The report revealed that the captain had only achieved clearance to fly solo on the type less than two months before the accident during which time he hd accumulated 188 hours. The report saud he had 3500 hours but most of this had been on light aircraft.
The Lebanese authority recommended that Ethiopian should revise its cockpit relationship management policies. Ethiopian Airlines in reply angrily dismissed the report as "biased” and said it was lacking evidence and incomplete. Sources say that the East African airline is convinced that the aircraft disintegrated in mid-air due to an explosion.
In a statement, Captain Desta Zeru, vice-president flight operations at Ethiopian Airlines, said the flight data and cockpit voice recorders show that the pilot was making "appropriate inputs in an effort to control the aircraft".
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