BEIRUT – American lawyers are set to begin legal proceedings against aeronautical giant Boeing on behalf of victims of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.
The case, to be handled by Chicago-based law firm Ribbeck Law, was filed by relatives of crash victims, Lebanese national Jamal Ali Khatoun and Ethiopian Tilahew Habte Mariyam.
Attorney at law Manuel von Ribbeck said that the case would seek to determine the reasons behind Ethiopian Airlines’ worst ever disaster.
“It is extremely important to the victims we represent that all responsible parties are brought to justice without exceptions,” he said. “We must find the causes of the crash and demand that the problems be resolved to avoid future disasters.”
The lawsuit is set to be officially unveiled in Beirut on Monday, but has been organized in anticipation of the official investigations’ report into the causes behind the crash.
Flight ET409 plunged into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport amid a violent thunderstorm in the early hours of January 25. The plane was bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and had 83 passengers and seven crew members on board. No survivors were found.
Ali Hassan Khatoun, father of victim Jamal, said that relatives of ET409 passengers wanted answers.
“It is important that we protect the rights of the victims immediately and before the engineering, design, manufacturing and maintenance disappear…We should not wait a day longer,” he said.
Ribbeck said that among the requests put to Boeing will be detailed records of who owned the ill-fated 737-800 since 2002. The plane had passed its latest safety check exactly a month before the disaster.
Findings from investigations of the plane’s black box flight recorders are expected to be released in the coming days. Information contained within official reports should cast light on what befell the jet before it disappeared from radar screens for good.
Sabotage was immediately ruled out as a cause by Lebanese and Ethiopian authorities, but pilot error has been said to be a factor by some officials.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake accused Lebanese authorities on Wednesday of making “misleading” comments on the cause of the crash.
“I am not happy with the way they are handling it,” Wake told reporters in Beirut.
Security sources told The Daily Star on Thursday that criminal laboratories had identified all 90 passengers, whose information would be sent to Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza, in order to administer relevant death certificates.
Mirza’s office will contact the Ethiopian Embassy in Beirut to arrange the transfer of all relevant files and body parts of all 27 Ethiopian victims to Addis Ababa.
However, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported that Lebanese naval commandoes were continuing the search for bodies Thursday, scanning 22 targets located by the retrieval vessel Ocean Explorer.
It quoted a security source saying searches were ongoing for victims’ belongings. The source added that it was up to the Lebanese Government to declare the search over.
The CNA announced that 11 crash victims will be buried on Friday. These include, Ziad Naeem Qosayfi to be buried in Jbeil, Mohammad Aakoush in Kharayeb, Yasser Mehdi in Deir Qanoun, Hassan Mohammad Issawi and Jamal Ali Khatoun in Juwaya, Hassan Kamal Ibrahim in Aynata, Hossein Ali Farhat in Braashit, Ali Ahmad Tajeddine in Hanaway and Haifa Al-Farran in Tyre.
An additional three passengers will be laid to rest Saturday. Fuoad Mohammad Jaber, Abbas Mohammad Jaber, Hussein Youssef Hajj Ali will all be buried in Nabatieh, the CNA added. – Additional reporting by Carol Rizk
