GASOLINE PRICE GROWS 1.9% IN ARMENIA IN APRIL
Noyan Tapan
May 03 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The price of gasoline grew by 1.9%,
while the price of diesel fuel declined by 0.5% in Armenia in April
on March 2006. According to the RA National Statistical Service, the
prices of gasoline and diesel fule grew by 6.2% and 1.6% respectively
in April 2006 on the same month of 2005.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS ON ECONOMIC REFORMS IN ARMENIA TO BE HELD ON MAY 18
Noyan Tapan
May 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. Parliamentary hearings “The Economic
Reforms in Armenia: Results and Development Prospects” will be held on
May 18 on the initiative of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee
on Financial, Credit, Budget and Economic Issues. According to the
committee chairman Gagik Minasian, the purpose of these hearings is
to analyze the process of reforms, which may become a stimulus for
developing the respective programs in the future. It is expected that
representatives of the parties not represented in the parliament,
as well as of various NGOs, scientific research institutions and
other organizations concerned will participate in the hearings.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
RUSSIAN TV CHANNELS AIR FIRST REPORTS OF SOCHI AIR CRASH
Sources:
RTR Russia TV
NTV
Channel One TV
Moscow 3 May 06
Following early agency reports about an air crash of an Armenian
Airbus A320 passenger jet near Sochi, all leading Russian TV channels
reported first details of the tragedy.
Russia TV channel at 0300 gmt led with a correspondent report from
Sochi. Presenter Irina Losyuk said that a rescue operation was in full
swing, with additional Emergencies Ministry and border guards boats
making their way to the scene, with special equipment for deep-water
rescue operations and a group of divers on board. The television
said 13 bodies had been recovered, and that there were 113 people on
board, including five children and eight crew members. An operative
headquarters of the rescue operations is working in Adler airport.
Russia TV showed the head of the southern regional search and rescue
detachment of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Igor Nazdrim, saying
the following: “All our boats, big and small, have been summoned. Our
cutter Mangust which was on duty this morning was one of the first
to arrive on the scene. Small boats from all the rescue stations,
over 10 small boats are there. They are gathering the debris and
fragments, and we have found some bodies as well. We are continuing
our search. The sea is choppy, about force one, and a storm is
increasing. The current is flowing towards Sochi.”
The TV said that Armavia, the Armenian air carrier, which was set
up in 1996, owns three A320, a Yak-42, an An-24 and rents two Tu-154
aircraft. The airline has more than 500 staff, and the main office is
in Zvartnots international airport. Russia TV’s correspondent reported
from Yerevan on the phone to say that the airline has cancelled
half of its flights for today and the managers are at the airport,
leaving for Sochi at 0800 hours to be at the scene.
Relatives of the passengers are arriving at the airline office,
he added.
The presenter said that the crashed liner was made in 1995, and up
to 2002 it was used in Australia and then refitted in France to join
the Armenian airline fleet. It is not known when the aircraft was
last serviced, Russia TV said. It then recalled all previous crashes
involving this type of an aircraft.
NTV also started with the crash story at 0300 gmt. It quoted an earlier
Interfax report about 11 bodies found on the scene. It said that oil
spills and rescue vests can be seen on the scene. It is though that
technical faults have developed on board, the TV report said, adding
that the pilots tried several times to land the plane and that the
plane entered water at an angle of 60 degrees. The television carried
a telephone report of its correspondent from Sochi about the rescue
operation currently under way. The report said the early theory about
the cause of the crash is bad weather near Sochi.
The correspondent said that it was raining heavily in Sochi even at
the time of report.
The television said that another two boats from Novorossiysk and
Tuapse were on their way to the scene, with divers on board. It said
the debris sank to the depth of 300 m. An Il-76 was about to fly out
from Ramenskoye airfield near Moscow, with rescue equipment on board,
the television said, adding that another two amphibious planes were
joining the rescuers from there as well.
Channel One TV also led with the crash story at 0300 gmt. It showed
the first footage from Sochi which featured a rescue ship in the
port of Sochi just back from the scene. Correspondents interviewed
the rescuers who said the accident happened at about 4 km away from
the shore. The report also showed footage of Adler airport where
relatives of the crash victims were gathering. The TV also recalled
the technical parameters of the aircraft. It can carry up to 150
people for 5,000 km, its length is 37.5 m and the width is 34 m.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ARMENIAN JET CRASH KILLS 113
By Nikolai Isayev
Metro Toronto, Canada
May 3 2006
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – All 113 passengers and crew on board an
Armenian airliner were killed on Wednesday when the plane crashed into
the Black Sea off the Russian coast in heavy rain and disintegrated.
Investigators blamed the bad weather. The Airbus A-320 had been trying
to land at Sochi, a popular holiday spot in southern Russia.
Russian prosecutors ruled out a bomb.
Rescue workers in motorized dinghies criss-crossed heaving seas to
search for survivors but an Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman said
preliminary information was that everyone on board was dead. The
plane was carrying at least five children.
By evening at least 46 bodies had been retrieved from the water,
along with dozens of body parts.
Rescue workers used boat hooks to pull jagged bits of fuselage from
the water. Pieces of foam and fabric from the aircraft’s seats were
piled up on the quayside at Sochi’s port.
The plane, operated by Armavia, had been making a short flight of
about an hour from the Armenian capital Yerevan. Most of the passengers
were Armenian nationals.
Some passengers’ relatives, hoping to collect the victims’ bodies and
bring them home, had arrived at Sochi’s airport on board a special
flight from Yerevan organized by the airline. A second plane of
relatives was on its way to Sochi.
Mostly men, they huddled around a list of victims posted on a
noticeboard in the airport terminal.
VANISHED FROM RADAR
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said 26 of the passengers were Russian
passport holders and almost all the rest were Armenians.
“I was waiting for a call from my mother that she had arrived okay.
But she didn’t phone, so I phoned myself and heard that this accident
had happened,” said Khapet Tadevosyan, 32, at Yerevan airport.
“She flew to Sochi to see her sisters, whom she hadn’t seen for 15
years,” he said.
A spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry said the plane vanished from
radar screens at 2:15 a.m. (2215 GMT Tuesday) near Sochi, which lies
close to the Georgian border.
“A terrorist act is completely ruled out,” Natalia Vishnyakova, a
spokesman for Russia’s Prosecutor General, said on Rossiya television.
An Armavia official said the aircraft had initially been refused
permission to land because of torrential rain, but airport officials
changed their minds.
The crash happened as the crew made a second approach.
“Our initial information is that the only cause was the weather,
for example poor visibility,” said Gayane Davtsian, a spokeswoman
for Armenia’s state aviation authority.
A day of mourning was declared in Armenia, a mountainous state of 3
million people, many of whom have relatives in southern Russia.
Television stations cleared their schedules and were playing somber
music.
Airbus said it would be sending six specialists to help authorities
with the crash investigation.
Attempts to pin down the cause of the crash were hampered by rain
and the fact that most of the plane had sunk to the seabed.
“The main parts of the plane are located at a depth of around 400
meters (1,300 feet),” Emergencies Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov
said.
The Airbus A-320, a twin-engined aircraft that seats 150 passengers,
entered service in 1988.
(Additional reporting by Hasmik Lazarian in Yerevan and Jason Neely
in London)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ARMENIA SAYS BAD WEATHER MOST LIKELY CAUSE OF PLANE CRASH
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 3 2006
YEREVAN, May 3 (RIA Novosti) – Bad weather conditions are the most
probable cause of an air crash over the Black Sea that left over
a hundred people dead early Wednesday, an Armenian civil aviation
official said.
“The airbus was in good technical condition. The pilots had high
professional skills, which is why we are considering only one version,”
said Artyom Movsisyan, head of the Main Civil Aviation Department.
A total of 113 passengers and crew died when an Armavia Airlines
A-320 flying from the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, came down about
six kilometers off Russia’s Black Sea coast en route to the airport
at Adler, which services the popular resort of Sochi.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
CRASHED PLANE LYING SOME 600 METERS UNDERWATER
Interfax Russia
May 3 2006
MOSCOW. May 3 (Interfax) – Rescue teams have found the location of an
Armenian A-320 plane that crashed into the Black Sea near the Russian
resort of Sochi early on Wednesday, Andrei Legoshin of the Russian
Emergency Situations Ministry told journalists in Moscow on Wednesday.
“The place where the plane crashed has been found. Updated reports
indicate that it is lying 500 to 600 meters underwater,” Legoshin said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
RELATIVES OF BLACK SEA AIR CRASH VICTIMS GATHER IN SOCHI
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 3 2006
YEREVAN/SOCHI/ROSTOV-ON-DON, May 3 (RIA Novosti) – More than 70
relatives of victims of an air crash over the Black Sea have arrived in
Russia from Armenia, a regional coastal guard officer said Wednesday.
All the 113 Armenian and Russian passengers and crew are presumed
dead after an Airbus flying from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to
an airport servicing the popular Russian resort of Sochi disappeared
from radar screens at 2:15 a.m. local time (Tuesday 10:15 p.m. GMT).
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said bad weather was most
likely to blame for the loss of the A-320, which belonged to Armenia’s
Armavia Airlines.
“A plane with official representatives from Armavia Airlines
will arrive at 2p.m. Moscow time (10a.m. GMT), and another plane
with relatives of the victims is expected at 4p.m. (12.00 GMT),”
said Vladislav Kozlitin, a spokesman for the regional border guard
department of the Federal Security Service.
Medical aid is also being provided to families of victims staying
at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport while the bodies of their relatives
are being recovered from the Black Sea, airport doctor Lyudmila
Avakyan said.
Ambulance teams have also been summoned.
“Airport workers also need medical and psychological aid because it
was our crew and our stewards,” Avakyan said.
Armenia’s parliament has decided to set up a working group to provide
assistance to the victims’ families. In particular, members of
parliament will collect donations.
May 5 and 6 have been declared mourning days in Armenia, and May 5
in Russia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ARMAVIA CONFIRMS ITS BLACK SEA CRASH AIRBUS A320 WAS ATTEMPTING SECOND APPROACH DUE TO BAD WEATHER
By David Kaminski-Morrow in London
Flight International
May 3 2006
Armenian national carrier Armavia has confirmed one of its Airbus
A320 had missed one approach due to bad weather and was attempting
a second before it crashed this morning off Russia’s Black Sea coast.
Poor weather conditions had forced the pilots of an Armavia Airbus
A320 to attempt a second approach to Sochi Airport in southern Russia
when the jet crashed into the Black Sea, the company says. Armavia
states that the crew of flight U8 967, operating from Yerevan to
Sochi, had received information en route that weather conditions
at the destination were poor and planned to divert to the Georgian
capital Tbilisi.
“Information from air traffic control about an improvement in the
weather conditions [at Sochi] was then received,” says the airline.
It says that the crew continued to the Russian city but, upon arrival,
found that the weather had not improved.
Russia’s transport ministry says that the weather conditions at
Sochi did not meet minimum criteria of 100m (330ft) cloud ceiling
and 1,500m visibility.
The ministry states that the A320 crew abandoned its initial approach
to Sochi before opting to make a second landing attempt, adding:
“After the [decision to conduct] the second approach, contact with
the crew ceased.”
It says that, just before the Sochi Airport air traffic controllers
lost radar contact with the A320, it was operating at a height of
around 920ft (280m) and a speed of 135kt (250km/h). The jet came down
at about 02:15.
Search operations are being conducted with two specialised rescue
vessels and at least 20 other watercraft. The ministry says: “As
soon as the weather will allow, helicopters will also be brought in
to assist the rescue work.”
Both the ministry and Russian accident investigation agency, the
Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK), have dispatched representatives
to the crash site. The ministry says that the accident occurred during
“adverse” weather conditions. MAK has not made any statement on the
weather at the time.
Meteorological data from the Sochi Airport weather station at
02:00 indicate the presence of cumulonimbus clouds but only light
precipitation.
Data shows that the sky was overcast and that cumulonimbus clouds,
the result of strong convective activity, were in the area. It also
indicates that the area was experiencing light rain showers and mist
but that visibility extended to 4km (2.2nm).
Armavia has confirmed that there were 105 passengers and eight crew
members on board the aircraft. MAK says that there were no survivors,
adding: “All members of the crew and passengers perished when it
struck the surface of the water.”
Sochi airport was also the destination of an August 2004 Sibir Airlines
Tupolev Tu-154 flight from Moscow Domodedovo which was brought down
by an axplosion, killing 38 passengers and eight crew.
Russian authorities concluded terrorism was the cause for the incicent
and a second, simultaneouls fatal hijacking.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
AIR DISASTER INVOLVING ARMENIAN PLANE SHAKES ARMENIA
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 3 2006
YEREVAN, May 3 (Itar-Tass) –Armenia has been shocked to hear the
news about the air disaster involving an airbus A-320 owned by the
Armavia Armenian company.
Few people in Armenia are in the habit of listening to news on radio or
television early in the morning; therefore, many people knew nothing
about the tragedy early on Wednesday morning yet.
There were 113 people on board, including twenty-eight Russian
citizens, when the plane that performed a regular flight from Yerevan
to Sochi on the Russian Black Sea coast crashed into the Black Sea
off Adler airport.
The plane took off at 1.47 a.m. local time (0.47 a.m. Moscow time).
An air traffic controller warned the crew about bad weather in
Sochi, and the crew decided to return to the home airport, said
representatives of the Armavia company. However, a new weather forecast
radioed on board said that weather conditions were improving, and
the plane continued the flight. When the plane was approaching Adler
airport weather conditions sharply worsened, and the pilots had to
a make a second landing approach. Then, the plane disappeared from
radar screens.
Deputy Commerce director of the Armavia company Andrei Agadzhanov
said that the plane was in perfect technical condition. First deputy
director of the Armavia company Ashkharbask Kalantara said that the
plane had undergone a pre-flight check made by the Yerevan personnel
of the Sabena technical Belgian aircraft technical service company.
The air disaster was a great shock to Armenia. People say they
experienced a shock similar to the one caused by an air disaster
in July, 1975 when a Yak- 40 plane crashed on the way from Yerevan
to Batumi.
Meanwhile, relatives of the victims killed in the plane crash have
been coming to Yerevan airport pending a special flight that will
take them to the area of the plane crash off the Russian coast. A
special commission of the Armavia Company and the Head Civil Aviation
Department under the Armenian government flew to Adler to inspect
the area of the plane crash.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ASEFI SENDS CONDOLENCES OVER ARMENIAN PLANE CRASH
Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
May 3 2006
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Wednesday expressed
condolences to the government, people and families of victims of an
Armenian plane crash in the Black Sea.
According to reports, an Armenian Airbus A-320 carrying 113 passengers
and crew crashed in the Black Sea near the south Russian seaside
resort of Sochi in heavy rain on Wednesday killing all on board.
The plane took off from the Armenian capital Yerevan and had been on
flying for about an hour when it crashed. Most of the casualties were
Armenian nationals.
A spokesman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry said rescue workers
had found baggages, life jackets, body parts, shattered plane parts
and patches of oil floating on the surface of the sea at the crash
site. At least 16 bodies had been found by 04:25 GMT.
Asefi expressed the Iranian government’s and nation’s deepest sympathy
with the Armenian people, government and bereaved relatives of victims.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress