Work to recover tail, landing gear of crashed A320 liner underway
ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
KRASNODAR, May 3 — On the site of the crash of the A320 passenger
liner of the Armenian airlines Armavia work is underway to recover
the spotted parts of the plane.
A source at the Krasnodar Territory prosecutor’s office has confirmed
reports that so far the bodies of 38 victims have been recovered.
“The bodies are being taken ashore for identification. Another 26
fragments of victims’ bodies have been found,” the source said.
The prosecutor’s office has said it is too early to discuss any causes
of the disaster, because nothing can be ruled out at this point,
including technical problems, the human factor or explosion.
“The crew’s captain first made a decision to make a landing, but poor
visibility and bad weather forced him to change his mind, so he told
the air traffic controller he was returning to Yerevan. However, a
short while later the conditions improved. The range of visibility on
one runway was 100 meters, and on the other, 360 meters. The captain
made a final decision to land at Adler. A short while later the plane
crashed,” the territorial prosecutor’s office said.
A team of investigators from the Russian Prosecutor-General’s office
has left Moscow for Adler to help investigate the incident on site.
The chief of the Prosecutor General’s Office special investigations
department, Vladimir Lyseiko is leading the panel of inquiry.

PM forms group for aid to families of A320 crash victims
By Natalya Slavina
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov has formed a special government
commission for providing relief aid to the families of the victims of
last night’s crash of an A320 liner of the Armenian airlines Armavia.
Transport Minister Igor Levitin has been appointed to chair the
commission.

Crashed plane passed all planned checks, repairs in April
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
An airplane A-320 belonging to the Armenian air company Armavia that
crashed in the Black Sea on Wednesday has passed all planned checks
and the repairs in April, chief of the main civil aviation department
in the Armenian government Artyom Movsesian said at a briefing in
the Armenian presidential staff after a meeting with the Armenian
president over the air crash.
This Airbus was produced in 1995 and passed all planned checks and
the repairs in April 2006, Movsesian emphasized.
He noted that before the flight the technical staff of the Belgian
aviation maintenance company Sabena Technics conducted a check and
drew conclusions about a full technical serviceability of the airliner.
The airplane was fueled with ten tonnes of good aviation kerosene
and had enough fuel to fly back to Yerevan, Movsesian pointed out.
Spokesman of the air company Sibir Yevgeny Filyanin, this air company
did not service the crashed airplane.
The airplane was carrying 113 people. According to the Russian Foreign
Ministry and the Emergencies Ministry, 26 Russian citizens mainly of
Armenian origin were aboard the plane.
The bad weather conditions near the Sochi airport are the main version
of the crash. All details of the crash will be clarified after the
investigating committee has completed its work and deciphered the
flight recorders.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Comm of interstate aviation comm flies to Adler to probe air crash
By Yevgeny Nikitin
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
A committee of the Interstate Aviation Commission headed by its
chairwoman Tatyana Anodina flied to Adler to investigate the causes
of the crash of an airliner A-320 belonging to the Armenian airlines
Armavia. The most experienced specialist of the Interstate Aviation
Commission – deputy chairman of the commission Leonid Kashirsky is in
charge of the technical investigation, spokesman for the Interstate
Aviation Commission Oleg Ermolov told Itar-Tass.
According to him, the Armenian aviation authorities provided all
available information to the committee. “However, it will be very
difficult to find the flight recorders because of a big depth at the
crash site of the airliner and a thick layer of silt (more than 100
meters),” the specialist pointed out.
Technical director for security problems of the Interstate Aviation
Commission Rudolf Teimurazov earlier told Itar-Tass that it will be
difficult to find the flight recorders as the debris of the airplane
is lying at the depth of two kilometers. He noted that the airplane
fell at the depth of 500 meters at the crash moment, but then sank
down deeper because of the hilly sea bottom.

Garegin II condoles on plane crash over Black Sea
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
His Holiness Garegin II expressed condolences on the A-320 plane
crash over the Black Sea.
“On behalf of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Supreme Spiritual
Council I want to express my condolences on the A-320 plane crash,”
Catholicos Garegin II said on Wednesday.
“We express grief over the tragedy and numerous losses of lives,”
the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church said.
Armenia has declared May 5 and May 6 a national day of mourning to
commemorate those were killed in the air crash near Sochi.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan signed a decree to this effect
on Wednesday, the presidential press service reported.
Twenty-eight Russian citizens were aboard the crashed Airbus belonging
to the air company Armavia. The list of passengers placed in the hall
of the Yerevan international airport Zvartnots showed it.
These are mainly people of Armenian origin.
Well-known aviator, former director general of the Armenian Airlines
Vyacheslav Yaralov, chief of the hall for official delegations of
the Yerevan airport Albert Azaryan, Aram Petrosyan, the son of
Lieutenant-General Karlos Petrosyan, the former director of the
Armenian governmental security service, are among those killed.
Rescuers have found 16 bodies of those killed as a result of the crash
of the airplane A-320 in the Black Sea so far, Deputy Emergencies
Minister Yevgeny Serebrennikov told Itar-Tass.
He noted, “An active stage of the search operation in which more than
ten vessels are involved is underway at the incident site.”
More than 40 specialists, including divers, are working in the
catastrophe area.
The airplane was carrying 113 people, including the crew. Sixty-three
men, 36 women, six children, including a newborn and eight crewmembers
were aboard the airplane, the information department of the Emergencies
Ministry told Itar-Tass.
The airplane A-320 was en route Yerevan-Sochi. During another attempt
at an emergency landing the airplane disappeared from the radars and
crashed in the sea at the depth of 300 meters, five kilometres off
the shore where the Adler airport is situated.

Black Sea air crash compensation to be set after investigation
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 03, 2006
YEREVAN/SOCHI, May 3 (RIA Novosti) – A decision on compensation
following the deaths of all passengers of an Armenian Armavia
Airlines plane that crashed over the Black Sea will be reached after
an investigation, the airline said Wednesday.
All the 113 passengers and crew are presumed dead after an Airbus plane
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).
Independent experts appointed by insurers are assessing the level
and procedures for compensation payouts, Armavia Airlines said.
“All passengers of the crashed A-320 airliner were insured in
accordance with international regulations and standards. Risks were
reinsured on the international market,” an airline source said, adding
that the airline would announce the final details as soon as possible.
Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin is currently meeting with
Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan at Adler Airport, which
services Sochi. A crisis center has been set up there.
Eighty-six relatives of the victims have arrived at Adler, and a
further 120 are expected soon.
The airline said, “On arrival, everyone is being put in hotels in
the city, and is being brought food. Where necessary, they are being
provided with medical and psychological help.” The Russian Emergency
Situations Ministry said bad weather was most likely to blame for
the loss of the A-320.
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 sea, airport doctor Lyudmila Avakyan said.
May 5 and 6 have been declared mourning days in Armenia, and May 5
in Russia.

Russian experts suspect human error in Armenian air crash
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 3, 2006 Wednesday 11:38 AM EST
Human error may have caused an Armenian Armavia airliner carrying
113 people to crash Wednesday after aborting a landing run near the
southern Russian resort of Sochi, aviation experts said.
As visibility contracted to 100 metres controllers at the Adler
airport told the Airbus A-320 to climb to 600 metres and circle for a
second attempt, an unnamed flight technician at the site told the
Interfax news agency.
But as the jet passed outlying mountains it may have banked too
steeply, causing it to drop into the Black Sea 6 kilometres offshore.
“The A-320 was flying at a speed of 250 kilometres an hour and that
may have been too little to make the ascent,” the expert said.
He rejected speculation by Armavia officials that a tornado caused
the accident.
The flight arriving from the Armenian capital Yerevan vanished from
the radar at 2:15 a.m. (2215 GMT Tuesday) without issuing a distress
signal. There were no survivors.
Russian federal aviation authorities were conducting an investigation
at the scene.

Russia to seek French aid over Armenian plane crash
Agence France Presse — English
May 7, 2006 Sunday 1:43 PM GMT
MOSCOW, May 7 2006 — Moscow is to ask France for help in retrieving
the black box flight recorders of an Armenian aircraft that crashed
in the Black Sea earlier this month, a Russian minister said Sunday.
“The aeronautical safety committee of the (12-nation) Commonwealth
of Independent States will approach French specialists,” said Russian
Transport minister Igor Levitin.
All the passengers and crew aboard died when an Airbus A320 operated
by the Armenian airline Armavia plunged into the sea Wednesday as it
tried to land at Sochi in bad weather on a flight from the Armenian
capital Yerevan.
“We have looked at the French experience at Sharm el-Sheikh,” Levitin
told reporters after a meeting with Emergency Situations Minister
Sergei Shoigu.
In January 2004 after a Flash Airlines Boeing crashed off the Egyptian
resort, a Scorpio robot sent by France recovered the two black boxes
from a depth of more 1,000 metres (3,300 feet).
“French colleagues have told us what equipment they used and French
companies have said they are ready to help us,” Levitin said.
“We can suggest to France that it take part with us in the search
operation and the task of bringing to the surface aircraft parts and
bodies” which have not been recovered, he said.
The plane probably either came down when heavy rain forced a loss
of speed, or was actually struck by lightning, according an aviation
specialist. Parts have been located at a depth of 680 metres (2,200
feet).
The bodies of 32 of the dead passengers have been taken to Yerevan,
Armenian Civil Aviation confirmed, with a further seven due to be
sent on Saturday night.
Rescuers have so far only found 51 bodies and seven of these have
not yet been identified, Sergei Aristov, Russia’s deputy transport
minister, said. neo-uh/sj/cc

Armenia’s Armavia to lease 2 Airbus to replace destroyed jets
AFX Europe (Focus); May 07, 2006
YEREVAN, Armenia (AFX) – Armenian airline Armavia is to lease two
new Airbus jets to replace the two destroyed this week, the group’s
deputy commercial director Andrei Agadjanov said yesterday.
One of Armavia’s Airbus jets crashed into the Black Sea and another
burned in a hangar in Brussels.

Message de condoleances du pape a la suite de l’accident d’un avion armenien
Agence France Presse
3 mai 2006 mercredi 1:41 PM GMT
CITE DU VATICAN 3 mai 2006
Le pape Benoît XVI a envoye mercredi un message de condoleances a la
suite de la catastrophe aerienne qui s’est produite dans le sud de la
Russie lorsqu’un appareil armenien s’est abîme en mer Noire, causant
la mort des 113 personnes a bord.
“Informe de la recente catastrophe aerienne au bord de la Mer Noire,
le Saint-Père s’incline devant les nombreuses victimes et il invoque
pour elles la misericorde du seigneur, lui demandant de les
accueillir dans son royaume de paix”, indique un telegramme envoye au
nom du pape par le secretaire d’Etat du Vatican, le cardinal Angelo
Sodano, au nonce apostolique en Armenie.
“Le pape me charge d’exprimer sa vive sympathie et l’assurance de ses
prières aux familles des disparus, a toutes les personnes eprouvees
par ce drame, ainsi qu’aux autorites et a tout le peuple armenien”,
conclut le telegramme.
Un Airbus A320 de la compagnie armenienne Armavia s’est abîme dans la
nuit de mardi a mercredi en mer Noire, près de Sotchi, dans le sud de
la Russie, en raison, selon des premiers elements, d’une mauvaise
meteo. Selon des donnees provisoires, tous les passagers et membres
de l’equipage sont morts.
–Boundary_(ID_89dQpasLqFqEDjQC2WGrVA)–