“We are finished. May God have mercy on us.” Those were the last chilling words from the captain of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 shortly before it crashed into the sea off Beirut, Lebanon, on January 25, killing all 90 people on board.

The flight lasted just four minutes from the time the aircraft took off into a thunderstorm until it hit the sea.

Both of the aircraft’s black boxes were recovered and have been sent to to France to be analysed by BEA, a French aircraft crash investigations agency.

According to local media in Lebanon, a preliminary report says the crash was caused by human error.

The same agency also reports also quotes an unamed airline source as saying that any reports blaming the crew for the crash were “just a guess”.

There has been rampant speculation on the Internet and in various news reports that the aircraft exploded or was on fire before it crashed, and officials in Lebanon have been scrambling to rule out any possibility of terrorism.

A detailed report on the crash is expected to be released this week, which is rather quick going, considering that aircraft investigations normally take many months, if not years, to complete.

Related posts:

1. Ethiopian government asks ICAO to intervene in Lebanon crash investigation
2. The Helderberg air crash: 22 years on and it’s still murky
3. Harare air “crash” only a drill
4. Air France plane crash raises safety fears
5. Flight 295: More on the Helderberg crash