46 BODIES RECOVERED FROM BLACK SEA AIR CRASH SITE

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 3 2006

MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) – The bodies of 46 people have been
recovered from the crash site of an Airbus airliner that plunged
into the Black Sea near the Russian coast early Wednesday morning,
a local prosecutor said.

A total of 113 people are presumed dead after the A-320, which
belonged to Armenia’s Armavia Airlines, crashed en route from the
capital Yerevan to the airport servicing the Russian resort of Sochi.

“The bodies of 46 people have been retrieved so far, [and] the
identification process has started,” said Sergei Yeremen, the
prosecutor for the Russian southern region of Krasnodar.

Yeremin said the plane’s flight data recorders, which could help
explain the crash, had not been discovered. Divers are expected to
arrive to search wreckage at a depth of 400 meters (over 1,302 feet).

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said bad weather was the most
likely cause of the crash, but several other versions of the tragedy
were being considered, including a mistake by the pilot, a technical
malfunction or a mistake by air traffic controllers.