At the request of the government of Lebanon and U.S. Department of State, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Africa, U.S. 6th Fleet, is coordinating assets in support of search and rescue efforts off the coast of Lebanon, January 25, 2010.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET409 crashed shortly after take-off from Beirut International Airport en route to Ethiopia. Within hours, a U.S. P-3 Orion aircraft and the USS Ramage (DDG 61) arrived on scene and were assisting the on-scene commander from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The P-3 Orion aircraft has departed the scene at this time.
Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet will continue to work with all participating parties and affected governments as the situation progresses.
Both the P-3 and Ramage were conducting regularly scheduled missions in the Eastern Mediterranean at the time of the crash.