TWO BLACK BOXES OF CRASHED ARMENIAN JET DETECTED
Xinhua, China
2006-05-05 05:57:10
May 4 2006
MOSCOW, May 4 (Xinhua) — Two black boxes of Armenia’s Airbus A-320
which crashed off the Russian Black Sea coast on Wednesday morning have
been spotted by French experts, an official from Russia’s Emergency
Situations Ministry said on Thursday.
“French experts finished their work by finding black boxes. They
claim to have spotted two black boxes at a depth of 680 meters not
far away from each other,” Lieut. Gen. Sergei Kudinov, chief of the
Emergency Situations Ministry’s southern branch, was quoted by the
Interfax news agency as saying.
The Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline belonging to the air company
Armavia crashed into the Black Sea near the southern Russian resort
town of Sochi on Tuesday, killing all 113 people onboard, including
six children and eight crew.
“As of today 28 bodies out of 48 withdrawn from water have been
identified,” Kudinov said. But no body was found on Thursday.
At the same time, rescuers have gathered three trucks of recovered
items and pieces of the aircraft on the surface.
“It is remarkable that among all the seat parts there were no safety
belts,” Kudinov said.
“As far as black boxes are concerned, taking into consideration world
experience, no one has ever raised them from such a depth.
Moreover, the harsh environment, hydrogen sulfide, should be taken
into consideration as well,” the official said.
In addition, there is nothing in the search zone at a depth from 60 to
200 meters, while sound locator is detecting “certain metal elements,
probably, of the airliner’s fuselage at a depth of 600 meters,”
Kudinov said.
Furthermore, an oil spot in the crash zone has split into several
parts, that are moving away from each other, he said, adding that
a vessel carrying sound locators will continue to work through the
night.