Over the last few days, most of us have been in sombre sadness disheartened by the disaster of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight FT-409 destined Beirut to Addis Ababa – leading to the death of 90 people onboard as it has now (at the time of this writing) been confirmed. Firstly, my condolences go to the families of the victims irrespective of where/who they belong to.
In this disaster, we also have been witnessing the unfair treatment given by some of the Beirut media and some circles directly or indirectly linked to the case. Though we may not have love for our own rulers in Addis Ababa, one of the Ethiopian iconic and unifying emblems in the tri-colour is the Ethiopian Airlines. I have been saddened to witness, at early stages of the Beirut tragedy, the unfair blames that the Tri-colour and its flight crew have been receiving, as have been mischaracterised by the Lebanese journalists, Ministry of Transport, Defence Officials etc. These comments of mine don’t implicate the Prime Minister of Beirut and other Officials who fairly have been reflecting on this tragedy.
In the first day, one of the Lebanese journalists I watched on the video posted on http://www.ecadforum.com/, www.abugida.com, www.abbaymedia.com etc websites made a crude and wrong statement saying that “the Ethiopian Airlines is not one of the best in the world.” The same journalist, by the name “Mariam Soleh?”, also stated that “the pilot could have flown his plane better”, that “he must have made a mistake somewhere”. She continued saying that he (the pilot) “did give extra fuel” to the plane. The question one asks is that did she say anything critical about the flight controllers at the airport? With no doubt in her mind, she was in fact praising them that they were supporting/aiding the pilot! In their part, the Lebanese Air Traffic Controllers have also characterised the cause of the disaster as that the pilot hasn’t manoeuvred the plane as instructed by them. This view has been repeatedly played by some circles of the Lebanese victims’ family.
To this end, the Lebanese Defence Ministry and the Transport ministry have stated that “Pilot didn’t follow the rules by changing the course of the flight”. (See http://ecadforum.com/articles/?p=286). This was adding the fuel to the earlier speculation of the officials with the intention of concealing the authorities’ mishandling of the flight by instructing the pilot to take off under adverse weather condition in the first place. The fact that other planes were taking off/landing can’t justify the wrong decision made by the Controllers or anybody associated if one has to rationalise this case. To my mind, what some circles of the Beirut media and some of the officials are doing is pointing fingers at others – the crew of the Ethiopian in this case.
I posted comments in protest of the officials’ unethical and unprofessional statements earlier on Monday. The journalist mentioned above seemed to me that she has no proper training in journalism and reporting. The other media outlets were quoting her by echoing the same guilty verdict attached to the crew around the world. Re. this is one of the first video postings on Monday on Pro-Democracy websites and of course played and has also been fed to TV broadcasting channels in Beirut. The Lebanese/Beirut Air Traffic Controllers are in a similar way attempting to delegate responsibility (“their hands are clean”) by blaming the Ethiopian Pilot with 20-years of experience in flying a commercial jet when they have advised the Pilot to take off in such adverse weather condition. Is this a dirt trick of being clever?
It would be premature to draw conclusions regarding the cause of this tragedy before a complete investigation of this disaster is conducted. This has to involve the US experts knowledgeable in such cases, the Boeing Staff, the Ethiopian Airlines’ and the Lebanese aviation experts and other relevant bodies that can help and with full resources provided to pursue the investigation. Though the FVR and FDR (Black box) could provide vital clues as to what has gone wrong, they may not provide a comprehensive/bigger picture of what has really gone wrong.
In the mean time, the Ethiopian Airlines Manager and staff, engaging knowledgeable experts in the field should stand boldly to defend the mischaracterisation of the other side that can damage the Airlines’ good name and reputation in the World. It is bad when cheap media allegations play in the ears/eyes of the people some of which are potential customers. This can be countered with well organised marketing that the Ethiopian is one of the safest /reputable airlines in the world. This may, I think can be a way of doing justice to the Tri-colour – the Ethiopian Airlines and of course to the authorities involved in the case too!!
I also think that Ethiopian Airlines should rigorously stick to its tradition of training crews, and staff that includes technical aviation traffic in a variety of environments and developing communication skills.
Further to this case and on the basis of his observation, Patrick Galey, has written an article that was published on The Huffington Post, showing how the people of Lebanon are racist and discriminate other nationals even in the time of disasters. Read for yourself the article below.
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The writer, Mengistu Adugna (PhD, PGCE) The author is a University lecturer in Computer Networks and Distributed Applied Programming. He writes occasionally on issues that concern Ethiopia and his major publications are on his own field. He can be reached at: [email protected]
