SEARCH OPERATION CONTINUES AT A-320 CRASH SITE

Regnum, Russia
May 4 2006

Near Sochi, where A-320 airbus crashed on May 3 making 113 people
dead, search operation has been carried out through the whole night
and has continued now. 12 vessels as well as several special boats
of the Russian Emergency Ministry are planned to operate in the area.

Vessels with deep-water equipment are just about to arrive to the
crash site, headquarters of the search operation inform.

As REGNUM earlier reported, 47 bodies were found, 17 of them
identified. The work is to continue today, on May 4. The airbus’s
flight recorders that could clarify details of the accident have not
been found yet. The Russian emergency ministry calls bad weather
conditions as main reason for the crash. The Russian Transport
Ministry and Armavia Company, to which the airbus belonged, think
the same. However, there is an assumption that was made public by
Governor of Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov saying that human
factor is to blame.

There are two commissions at once that investigate the accident. The
Russian one is headed by Transport Minister Igor Levitin. “Together
with us our colleagues from Armenia are working. Defense Minister Serzh
Sarkisyan has held together with us a joint session with operative
groups. We cannot speak on provisional results yet. Expert group has
started working. Communication of the Air Traffic controller with the
crew is to be decoded yet,” the Russian minister is quoted as saying
by RTR.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress