500 RESCUERS JOIN RECOVERY EFFORTS AFTER BLACK SEA PLANE CRASH

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 3 2006

MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) – About 500 rescuers have joined an
operation to recover bodies from the Black Sea after an Armenian
airliner crashed near the Russian coast early on Wednesday, emergency
services said.

A total of 113 passengers and crew were killed when an Airbus A-320
belonging to Armenia’s Armavia Airlines flying from the capital,
Yerevan, crashed about six kilometers from the coast en route to an
airport in Adler, which services the resort of Sochi.

Yevgeny Serebryakov, a deputy minister of the Russian Emergency
Situations Ministry, said, “The rescue operation is continuing despite
poor weather.”

The ministry reported earlier that it had recovered 25 bodies.

Serebryakov added that the ministry also sent a group of psychologists
to support passengers’ relatives who had gathered at the airport
in Adler.

The recovery operation involves about 20 boats and a Be-200 amphibious
aircraft, the ministry said earlier, adding that two more Be-200s
would fly to the scene if necessary.