Lebanese soldiers gather debris from the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea on the shore near the Beirut airport in Lebanon. (Hussein Malla/Associated Press)

Search teams recovered 21 bodies after an Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people, including a Canadian, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea early Monday, officials say.

The Boeing 737-800 went down 3½ kilometres off the Lebanese coast at roughly 2:30 a.m. local time, only minutes after takeoff from Beirut en route to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

By nightfall, searchers had not recovered any survivors from the Mediterranean, which was 18 C on Monday afternoon.

Lebanese Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife told reporters that 21 bodies had been found. The Cypriot defence ministry corrected an earlier report that 34 bodies had been found, saying they had miscounted the bodies.

Helicopters and a navy ship search off the Lebanese coast for survivors of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed carrying 90 people. (CBC)

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department confirmed a Canadian citizen was on board and that consular officials were in contact with the family.

"We saw fire falling down from the sky into the sea," said Khaled Nasser, a gas station attendent who witnessed the crash.

The Lebanese army said in a statement the plane was "on fire shortly after takeoff."

Ghazi Aridi, the public works and transportation minister, said the weather during takeoff was "very bad." Lebanon has been hit by heavy rain and thunder and lightning storms since Sunday night.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said, "sabotage is ruled out as of now."

The plane was carrying 90 people: 83 passengers and seven crew members. Aridi, the transportation minister, identified the passengers as 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one Syrian, one Canadian of Lebanese origin, one Russian of Lebanese origin, a French woman and two Britons of Lebanese origin.

The wife of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to Lebanon, was on the plane, according to the French Embassy.

Ethiopian Airlines' CEO Girma Wake told journalists in Addis Ababa said the aircraft had been serviced on Dec. 25 and passed inspection. He also said the plane had been leased in September from CIT Aerospace.

Calls to CIT Aerospace were not immediately returned Monday.

With files from The Associated Press