The Lebanese army said Thursday investigators have detected signals from the black box of the Ethiopian Airlines jet which crashed off the coast of Lebanon earlier this week, dpa reported. The signals were detected about 8 kilometers from Beirut's international airport. "We think today [Thursday] will bring some positive results," Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said. A Lebanese army officer at the crash site said that "the rescue teams are now working hard to reach the black box at its location." He said an official statement is to be released when the black box is found. The Addis Ababa-bound plane crashed into the sea at dawn Monday four minutes after taking off from Rafik Hariri International Airport amid stormy weather conditions. All 90 passengers of the Ethiopian Airlines flight 409 are presumed dead. So far 32 bodies have been recovered. The cause of the crash remains unknown, but Lebanon has ruled out terrorism and blamed the crash on bad weather conditions. Five Ethiopians and six Lebanese nationals have been identified among the bodies recovered, which were transferred to Rafik Hariri state hospital. Lebanese Health Minister Mohammed Khalife said authorities in Addis Ababa were sending DNA samples to Lebanon from families of the Ethiopian passengers to help in identifying the victims.
