New reports show that the Ethiopian Airlines jet that just recently crashed off the coast of Lebanon ignored instructions from the air traffic controller to avoid a series of violent thunderstorms. Elias Murr, the Lebanese Defense Minister, said that a traffic control recording shows that the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm. However, the plane went in the opposite direction. It is not yet known what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot’s control or not.

All of the 90 passengers, as well as all of the crew that were on board the flight, died when it crashed into the Mediterranean. The crash took place just shortly after the plane took off from the Beirut airport. Apparently when the flight took off, controllers gave it compass headings to avoid the powerful storms that crossed its flight path. However, the plane disappeared from radar only five minutes after takeoff when it apparently flew straight into the line of the storm.

The Lebanese Transport Minister, Ghazi Aridi, said that the pilot flew in the opposite direction to that advised by the controllers. They asked the pilot to please correct his path, but he did a very fast and very strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar. So far there is no indication as to what caused the crew to follow the wrong heading.

A very violent thunderstorm is also believed to have been a major factor in the crash of Air France flight 447, which crashed just off the Brazilian coast last June. The columns of wind in the heart of cumulonimbus clouds can quickly send planes out of control. This is what is believed to have caused the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane as well.