Ninety passengers and crew are feared dead after an Ethiopian airliner crashed off the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon shortly after takeoff in stormy weather in Beirut in the early hours of Monday.
The Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 737-800, which was en route to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, disappeared off the radar minutes after taking off, international media reported, citing airport officials.
It is not known what caused the crash. Police have ruled out a terrorist attack saying it was likely caused by poor weather. It had been raining heavily with lightning in Beirut on Sunday.
Helicopters and naval ships were reported to be searching the area. Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transportation Ghazi El Aridi said the authorities had requested help from U.N. peacekeepers and some neighboring countries, media reports said.
Lebanon's transport minister said the crash site has been identified.
"(The crash) site has been identified three-and-a-half km (two miles) west of the (coastal) village of Na'ameh," Reuters quoted Aridi as saying.
Lebanese search teams recovered two bodies from the crash site, a Lebanese security official said.
There were no immediate reports on survivors.
The wife of France's ambassador to Lebanon was on board the plane, an unidentified Lebanese government official and the embassy told AFP citing the passenger list. An embassy spokeswoman confirmed the spouse was on board the aircraft that was carrying 83 passengers and seven crew members.
Fifty-four were Lebanese, 22 Ethiopian, two were British and there were also Canadian, Russian, French, Iraqi and Syrian nationals on board.
MOSCOW, January 25 (RIA Novosti)
