Lebanon hands over bodies of 10 foreign victims of Ethiopian airlines crash
Daily Star, Lebanon
Monday, February 15, 2010
Carol Rizk
BEIRUT: Lebanon on Saturday handed over the bodies of 10 foreign victims killed in last month’s Ethiopian plane crash. Ethiopian Airlines flight ET409, bound for Addis Ababa, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on January 25 shortly after take-off from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport. All 83 passengers and seven crew are presumed dead.
Victims included the wife of France’s ambassador to Lebanon, Marla Sanchez Pietton. Her body was transported to Hotel Dieu Hospital early Saturday morning before being flown to Paris for burial.
The bodies of five Lebanese victims were also handed to their families: Khalil Saleh, Mohammad Bazzouni, Tanal Fardoun, and Asaad Massoud Feghali. The body of Hussein Youssef al-Hajj was transported to Nabatieh in South Lebanon on Sunday.
The Rafik Hariri University Hospital also handed over the bodies of five Ethiopian victims to the Ethiopian Consulate, leaving the bodies of seven other Ethiopians at the hospital. The bodies, four women and one man, were flown to their home country on Sunday on board flight IT 3414 bound for Addis Ababa.
The families of Lebanese victims gathered at the hospital not only to receive the bodies of their loved ones but also to express their doubts concerning official reports about the crash.
“There are many questions we need to ask,” said Sheikh Hussein al-Harakeh speaking on behalf of the families. “We don’t want to analyze but we want clear answers.”
Hiba Mahdi, a sister of one of the victims, asked Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi to clarify the matter and said she was not convinced with the information she had been given.
“Before applauding employees at the control tower, the crash site should have been determined and the bodies of our loved ones should have been recovered,” she said.
Ali Issawi, the son of one of the victims also questioned why professional divers were not allowed to participate in the search for the plane’s debris while they were allowed to do so during investigations into Rafik Hariri’s murder in 2005 near Beirut’s Saint Georges Hotel.
He also demanded the government explain why only parts of the plane’s black box, rather than the whole box, had been found.“Where is the committee that we were promised would be in contact with us?” he asked.
Health Minister Mohammad Jawwad Khalifeh is scheduled to meet with families of the victims on Monday, while Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar is to preside over a meeting of the judicial committee formed to follow up on the plane crash.