Search teams find major section of crashed Ethiopian plane

The main section of the Ethiopian Airliner which crashed off the coast of Lebanon last month killing all 90 on board has been found, the Lebanese transport minister announced Saturday.

"The search teams managed to identify the location of a main part of the plane at a depth of 45 metres under water," Aridi said during a press conference, dpa reported.

"This is a very big step towards progress," he added.

He said the vessel Ocean Alert has found part of the rear section of the aircraft off the coast near Naameh, 12 kilometres south of Beirut.

The next step - since the weather conditions have improved - would be for diving teams search the site for the black boxes that could explain why the plane crashed on January 25, he said.

The Boeing 737-800 went down four minutes after take-off from Beirut international airport, amid a stormy weather.

The plane was bound to Addis Ababa with 83 passengers and seven crew on board. Among the passengers 54 were Lebanese nationals.

No survivors were found, and some 32 bodies, some of which were only identified by DNA tests, have so far been recovered.