RUSSIAN EMERGENCY OFFICIALS: 112 PASSENGERS ON CRASHED ARMENIAN AIRLINE ARE DEAD

Pravda, Russia
May 3 2006

An Armenian passenger jet crashed in bad weather early Wednesday off
the Black Sea coast shortly before it was to land in the Russian city
of Sochi, killing at least 112 people, emergency officials said.

Armenian airline officials said they believed the crash was due to
the stormy weather.

The Airbus A-320, which belonged to the Armenian airline Armavia,
disappeared from radar screens just under 6 kilometers (3.7 miles)
from the shore and crashed after making a turn and heading toward the
Adler airport near Sochi, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman
Viktor Beltsov said. Rescue officials in the ministry’s southern
regional branch said the 112 people aboard the plane, including five
children, were killed.

Beltsov had said earlier that according to preliminary information,
there were 113 people aboard. Armavia deputy commercial deputy Andrei
Agadzhanov said in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, that the plane
was carrying 105 passengers and eight crew. There was no immediate
explanation for the varying numbers.

Wreckage from the plane was found not far from the shoreline, Beltsov
said, and salvage workers said the fuselage was found at a depth of 450
meters (1,485 feet). Search and rescue teams have pulled 11 bodies from
the water, Beltsov said. Boats and divers were involved in the search.

The plane disappeared from radar screens at about 2:15 a.m. (2215 GMT
Tuesday) during a flight from Yerevan to Sochi, a resort city on the
Black Sea in southern Russia, Beltsov said.

He said that the plane went down while trying to make a repeat attempt
at an emergency landing. However, the Interfax news agency quoted
the Russian air control agency as saying that the plane’s crew had
not declared any emergency.

Agadzhanov said that the crew had communicated with Sochi ground
controllers while the plane was flying over the Georgian capital,
Tbilisi. The ground controllers said there were poor weather conditions
but the plane could still land, the representative said.

Just before the landing, however, the ground controllers told the crew
to make another circle in the air before approaching the airport. Then
the plane crashed, reports the AP.