ARMENIAN PLANE CRASH RELATIVES IN AGONISING WAIT FOR LOVED ONES

Agence France Presse — English
May 3, 2006 Wednesday 4:25 PM GMT

SOCHI, Russia

Relatives of those who died when an Armenian plane crashed into the
Black Sea on Wednesday stared out from the 13th floor of a support
centre set up in a local hotel, wishing the return of those who
disappeared beneath the waves.

Distraught and with rings under her eyes, Larisa Sarkasyan said she
had come with a friend to the centre at the Hotel Moscow in this
Russian resort town, seeking news of her friend’s daughter, a member
of the cabin crew of the plane that crashed earlier in the day with
the loss of all 113 people on board.

“I’d wanted Mara to take something to Moscow for me, but her mother
told me she’d gone to Sochi instead — it was her first time on that
flight,” Larisa said, recalling the last hours before the death of
the 35-year-old crew member.

“Then, in the night, I found out the plane had crashed. I didn’t dare
to call, but asked my husband to,” she said.

Mara’s 12-year-old son had hardly begun to grasp what had happened.

“He’s still hoping his mother will come back,” Larisa said.

Nearby, psychologists were on hand to offer help, while investigators
questioned relatives of the dead, asking them to describe their
perished loved ones to aid the identification process.

Many relatives had come on a special flight from the Armenian capital,
Yerevan, following the crash of the Airbus A320 operated by Armenia’s
Armavia.

Other relatives gathered at the morgue in this southern town that
for most Russians conjures up images of sun, sand and respite from
harsher climes.

But authorities were for the most part staying tight-lipped.

“Mum called 10 minutes before the expected landing time to say
the plane was about to land — she already had a phone signal,”
said Akop Akopyan, who was there with his father and had lost his
mother, Zara, 49. “Ten minutes later the plane had disappeared from
the radar screens.”

Some relatives tried to extract information from policemen guarding
the morgue.

“My friend had a beauty spot on his left cheek. Have you seen him
among the bodies?” one man asked of a policeman on guard.

Two young women managed to get a policeman to show them a photograph of
one of the dead that he had taken using a camera on his mobile phone,
but it was not the body they sought.

“I’m looking for my boyfriend,” explained one of the women.

With fragments from just 49 bodies recovered by Wednesday evening,
some relatives faced a long and agonising wait, whether standing at
the morgue or staring out to sea from the hotel window.