What happened
On 25 January 2010, an Ethiopian Airlines flight, operating as ET 409, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea approximately 5 NM southwest of Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-80 0 with registration ET-ANB, was performing a scheduled international service from Beirut to Addis Ababa. The flight departed at night under an instrument flight plan amidst weather conditions involving low clouds and thunderstorms.
Following takeoff, air traffic control issued a revised clearance for the aircraft to perform an immediate right turn toward Chekka. After the departure, the tower instructed the crew to maintain a heading of 315°. Due to nearby weather, controllers subsequently advised the aircraft to follow a heading of 270°. Although the crew acknowledged the instruction and updated the Mode Control Panel, the aircraft continued its right turn past the intended heading. Despite further urgent instructions from ATC to turn left to a heading of 270°, the aircraft continued a leftward trajectory, eventually reaching a southerly track before a sharp left turn led to its disappearance from radar. The aircraft impacted the water only seconds after the takeoff roll was completed.
All 90 individuals on board, including the flight crew, cabin crew, and passengers, were fatally injured.
Findings
Data recovered from the flight recorders indicated that the aircraft experienced significant aerodynamic instability. The flight data recorder showed that the crew encountered two separate stick shaker activations and received 11 aural bank angle warnings during the flight. The aircraft also triggered an over-speed warning near the end of the flight. Flight parameters recorded extreme maneuvers, including a maximum bank angle of 118 degrees left, a maximum nose-down pitch of 63.1 degrees, and a maximum G load of 4.76. The uncontrolled flight path deviations following ATC instructions were the primary focus of the flight path analysis.