BEIRUT: A Lebanese court has sentenced the pilot of a Beirut bound passenger jet to 20 years in jail, after it emerged his actions caused a crash which killed least 136 people. Beirut-bound UTA Flight 141, which plunged into the sea in 2003, was piloted by Libyan Najib al-Barouni, who was found guilty of neglect by a state prosecutor Tuesday. Barouni remains at large and was sentenced in absentia along with Lebanese national Darwish Khazem, a representative of the privately owned Lebanese-Guinean airline. In addition, Imad Saba, the Palestinian-American owner of the ill-fated Boeing 727, UTA General Manager Ahmed Khazem and the same company's operation chief Mohammad Khazem were delivered custodial sentences ranging from three years to three months. The three men were present in court for the hearing and all five were ordered to pay a total $930,000 for relatives of victims. Flight 141 crashed shortly after takeoff from Benin's capital Cotonou in West Africa, on Christmas Day 2003. At least 136 but as many as 160 people on board, the majority Lebanese, were killed in the accident. The exact number of dead remains a mystery but 22 individuals survived the wreckage and 23 were never found. UTA, which was eventually incorporated into a French aviation firm, had a checkered safety history and was only given permission to commence commercial flights from Beirut after initially failing to meet necessary safety specifications. Preliminary investigations into the cause of the crash showed that the plane had taken off up to 10 tons overweight, although subsequent crash probes revealed a different problem. “The direct cause of the accident was not the large amount of excess weight on board, but the distribution of the load,” said France's Accident Investigations Bureau (BEA) in the months following the crash. The French experts also criticized lapses in technical support on the ground in Cotonou, urging Benin and other West African states to invest in “control structures for planes making stopovers.” Initial offers of compensation to the tune of $25,000 per victim for family members were not accepted. Civil proceedings have been brought against Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines in the wake of the Flight ET409 crash of January this year. The plane crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Beirut airport in a violent thunderstorm, killing all 90 people on board. The flight had been bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where most Lebanese passengers were to travel on to work placements in West Africa. Lebanon maintains a strong diaspora presence in countries such as Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Ghana and several airlines service Beirut airport especially for those travelling to and from Lebanon on business.
