LEBANON: Ethiopian priests comfort grieving relatives in Beirut

Record ID: 429385

  • Title: LEBANON: Ethiopian priests comfort grieving relatives in Beirut
  • Date: 27th January 2010
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (JANUARY 26, 2010) (REUTERS) ETHIOPIAN PRIESTS STANDING OUTSIDE HOSPITAL WHERE BODIES OF CRASH VICTIMS ARE BEING BROUGHT PRIEST HOLDING CROSS PRIESTS COMFORTING RELATIVES OF VICTIMS RELATIVES CRYING WOMAN WEEPING PRIESTS COMFORTING THE RELATIVES RELATIVES WAITING NABATIEH, LEBANON (JANUARY 26, 2010) (REUTERS) MAIN STREET SIGN READING 'NABATIEH' VARIOUS OF SHOPS CLOSED LOCK ON SHOP MEN SITTING ON BENCH MAIN STREET
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA72AGC5NGRAJ49W8HCHGK3FLVD
  • Story Text: Ethiopian priests offer prayer and comfort to relatives of Ethiopian victims of Monday's plane crash as hopes fade of finding survivors. In Nabatieh, where many of the Lebanese passengers came from, families prepare to mourn their dead.
    Ethiopian priests offered comfort and prayer on Tuesday (January 26) as relatives of passengers on the crashed Ethopian Airlines plane waited to hear the fate of their loved ones.
    Lebanese and international search teams scoured the Mediterranean coast for the victims and missing flight recorders of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed into the sea soon after take off from Beirut early on Monday morning (January 25).
    Ninety people, mostly Lebanese and Ethiopians, were on board Flight ET409 heading to Addis Ababa before it disappeared off the radar five minutes after takeoff.
    Relatives of Ethiopian passengers stood outside the Beirut hospital where bodies are being brought, waiting and weeping as priests embraced them.
    Many Ethiopians come to work in Lebanon as domestic workers.
    Lebanese officials said 14 bodies, including those of two toddlers, had been recovered so far. The body parts of another victim were also retrieved. Twenty-two Ethiopians were on board the flight.
    The plane apparently broke up in the air before crashing into the sea during a thunderstorm. Recovery teams pulled out a segment of the plane's wing that had Ethiopian Airlines' red, yellow and green colours emblazoned on it. The black box has yet to be located.
    Many relatives were angry that the plane had been allowed to take off in bad weather. But Information Minister Tareq Mitri, speaking after meeting ministers and security officials on Monday night, said there had been no reason to stop the plane departing.
    Most of the Lebanese passengers, 54 in total, were Shi'ites from the south with business interests in Africa. Some twenty of them where from the southern town of Nabatieh alone.
    Relatives embraced and cried outside the house of one of the missing passengers. Preparations were being made to welcome mourners to the home, with chairs being placed outside.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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