Ethiopian Airlines 'black box' found

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Searchers located the black box from an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed into the Mediterranean shortly after takeoff from Beirut, Lebanon, officials said.

The flight data recorder, critical to the accident investigation, was located about 4,300 feet under water and would soon be retrieved, CNN quoted the Lebanese army as saying Thursday.

Twenty-six bodies were recovered as of Thursday, the army said. It identified five of the dead as Ethiopians.

The Boeing 737-800, carrying 82 passengers and eight crew members, crashed into the sea Monday shortly after it took off in stormy weather from Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport.

The pilot made a "fast and strange turn" minutes after takeoff and flew in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the control tower, Lebanese Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said Tuesday.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman ruled out terrorism as the cause of the crash.

The plane -- bound for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa -- went down about 2 miles off the coastal village of Naameh, 9 miles south of Beirut, Aridi said.

Fifty-one passengers were Lebanese and 23 were Ethiopian, the airline said. Two others were British nationals, and the remaining six were Turkish, French, Russian, Canadian, Syrian and Iraqi citizens, the airline said.

The eight crew members were Ethiopian.