Lebanese Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said on Feb. 11 that the crash of the Ethiopian plane is unlikely to be the result of sabotage.

Aridi told a news conference at Beirut airport that "from the technical side, all the plane's systems were functioning properly until the moment of the crash. An explosion is ruled out."

However, he stressed that "we should safeguard the secrecy of the investigation in order to preserve its credibility".

Aridi's announcement came after Ethiopian Airlines said on Feb. 10 that it could not rule out "sabotage" as the cause of the crash of the Ethiopian flight on Jan. 25 shortly after take-off from Beirut airport with 90 people on board.

The Lebanese minister also said "the area of search operations off the coast of Naameh is off-limits".

"Some of the plane parts were kept in place. If the insurance company wants to retrieve them and asks Ethiopian Airlines for that, then we will do the job," added Aridi.

One of the plane's two black boxes recovered on Feb. 7 has been sent to France for analysis. Results, however, will not come out until five or six months later.

On Feb. 10, search teams found the second black box but an essential piece was missing.