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The cause of the crash remained a mystery, but Aridi suggested Tuesday that pilot error may have been a factor, with the plane following the recommended air traffic control route before abruptly altering course. The minister also categorically ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack.
“They [air traffic controllers] asked [the pilot] to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar,” Aridi told reporters.
Unconfirmed eyewitness accounts close to the crash site in Naameh spoke of the plane being engulfed in flames following a lightning strike as it battled howling wind and rain.
“Nobody is saying the pilot is to blame for not heeding orders,” Aridi added. “There could have been many reasons for what happened. Only the black box can tell.”
Ethiopian Airlines CEO immediately refuted Aridi’s suggestion that the pilot had altered the Boeing 737’s course prior to crashing.
“Rushing remarks, I don’t think that helps anybody,” Wake said in
He added that the pilot had 20 years experience flying commercial aircraft but refused to divulge his name.
Officials from both countries said immediately after the crash that terrorism was unlikely to be the cause.
“The probability of sabotage in these circumstances is much less than all other probabilities,” a security official, who did not wish to be identified, told reporters at
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