Lebanon's Civil Aviation Authority (LEBCAA) have released their final report concluding the probable causes of the crash were:
Probable Causes
- The flight crew's mismanagement of the aircraft's speed, altitude, headings and attitude through inconsistent flight control inputs resulting in a loss of control.
- The flight crew failure to abide by CRM principles of mutual support and calling deviations hindered any timely intervention and correction.
Contributing Factors
- The manipulation of the flight controls by the flight crew in an ineffective manner resulted in the aircraft undesired behavior and increased the level of stress of the pilots.
- The aircraft being out of trim for most of the flight directly increased the workload on the pilot and made his control of the aircraft more demanding.
- The prevailing weather conditions at night most probably resulted in spatial disorientation to the flight crew and lead to loss of situational awareness.
- The relative inexperience of the Flight Crew on type combined with their unfamiliarity with the airport contributed, most likely, to increase the Flight Crew workload and stress.
- The consecutive flying (188 hours in 51 days) on a new type with the absolute minimum rest could have likely resulted in a chronic fatigue affecting the captain's performance.
- The heavy meal discussed by the crew prior to take-off has affected their quality of sleep prior to that flight.
- The aircraft 11 bank angle aural warnings, 2 stalls and final spiral dive contributed in the increase of the crew workload and stress level.
- Symptoms similar to those of a subtle incapacitation have been identified and could have resulted from and/or explain most of the causes mentioned above. However, there is no factual evidence to confirm without any doubt such a cause.
- The F/O reluctance to intervene did not help in confirming a case of captain's subtle incapacitation and/or to take over control of the aircraft as stipulated in the operator's SOP.
The report is contested by Ethiopian Airlines stating: "the final report was biased, lacking evidence, incomplete and did not present the full account of the accident. He noted that the report contained numerous factual inaccuracies, internal contradictions and hypothetical statements that are not supported by evidence" and continuing "ATC officers and other airlines’ pilots have witnessed a ball of fire on the aircraft in the air. All recordings of the Digital Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder stopped at 1300 ft. and the aircraft disappeared from radar screen at the same time. The last cockpit voice recording was also a loud noise which sounds like an explosion. All these facts clearly indicate that the aircraft disintegrated in the air due to explosion, which could have been caused by a shoot-down, sabotage, or lightening strike."