‘THE WOMEN ARE HOME CRYING, THE MEN WAITING’
By Mike Eckel, Adler

Irish Examiner, Ireland
May 4 2006

BOATS laden with dead bodies and twisted metal sailed into the
palm-fringed harbour of Sochi, Russia, yesterday, carrying the remains
of some of the 113 people who died when an Armenian airliner smashed
into the Black Sea.

The plane went down about 2.15am (11.15pm Irish time) in heavy rain
and poor visibility, as it was approached Adler airport in Adler,
about 12 miles south of Sochi, a city wedged between the sea and
soaring snow-capped mountains.

The cause of the crash was not immediately determined and divers were
attempting to retrieve the Airbus A-320’s recorders from the deep,
wave-chopped crash site about 3.5 miles offshore.

A spokeswoman for the Russian prosecutor general’s office, Nataliya
Vishnyakova, dismissed the possibility of terrorism and other officials
pointed to the rough weather or pilot error as the likely cause of
the crash

Rescue boats battled stiff winds and heavy seas to try to retrieve
bodies and fragments of the plane, which was leased by Armavia,
Armenia’s largest airline.

By late afternoon, 46 bodies had been brought into the port and taken
to the city’s two morgues for identification.

Outside one of the morgues, about 100 stood grimly, rushing forward
every time a truck carrying remains pulled up to the gates. “People
want to know anything just now, anything,” said 38-year-old Aryag
Ghagosian, who said a friend’s brother was on the flight that
originated in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

“The women are all home crying, the men are all standing here
waiting. Whatelse can we do?” said a 47-year-old man who gave his
name only as Misha,reflecting the wide distrust of authorities within
Sochi’s large Armenian community.

He said his brother, sister-in-law and nephew were aboard the crashed
plane, but he didn’t know if their bodies were among those recovered.

“They say they’re identifying the bodies, but we’re not learning
anything,” he complained.

At Yerevan’s Zvarnots Airport, from where the doomed plane took off,
other relatives were in agony.

“I’ve lost my sweetheart, my son!” 50-year-old Anait Bagusian wailed
as doctors hovered nearby because she had swooned several times.

Samvel Oganesian said his 23-year-old son Vram and his friend Hamlet
Abgarian had been heading to Sochi for vacation.

“Why did he go?” Oganesian asked in anguish, over and over again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian President Robert
Kocharian declared Friday a day of mourning in both countries.

The airline said that 26 Russians, one Ukrainian and one Georgian
were among the passengers, while the rest were Armenian citizens. But
Interfax cited Armenian civil aviation spokesman Gayane Davtian as
saying no Georgians or Ukrainians were aboard.

Twenty-five boats, many carrying divers, were involved in the search,
while a deep-sea robot was to be used to try to recover the plane’s
recorders from waters up to 1.2 miles deep.

The plane broke up on impact and passengers’ personal belongings and
plane fragments were found scattered over a mile-wide area.

Emergency ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said the plane disappeared
from radar screens while trying to make a repeat attempt at an
emergency landing. However, Interfax quoted the Russian air control
agency as saying that the plane’s crew had not declared any emergency.

Armavia deputy commercial deputy Andrei Agadzhanov said weather
conditions were “certainly” the cause of the crash.