ARMENIA DECLARES MAY 5, MAY 6 DAYS OF MOURNING

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 3 2006

YEREVAN, May 3 (Itar-Tass) – 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.