CLOUDS AND BIRDS DOWNED AIRBUS
by Sergey Mashkin

378
May 05, 2006

Investigation

Recovery work continued yesterday at the Black Sea site of the crash
of the Airbus A-320 belonging to Armavia Airlines. The bodies of
several victims and fragments of the plane were recovered on the
water’s surface. Russian divers are unable to reach the flight
recorders, which are lying on the seabed at a depth of about 600
meters. Transportation Minister Igor Levitin said that Russia may
ask of the assistance of foreign specialists to recover them.

Later yesterday evening, the remains of 20 of the 112 persons who
perished on that flight were returned to Yerevan. Those were the people
whose relatives were able to identify them. The other bodies recovered
from the Black Sea will require identification by DNA testing. Blood
samples have already been taken from relatives for that purpose. It
is assumed that some of the victims will be buried today, which has
been declared a day of mourning in Russia and Armenia.

The causes of the crash remain unknown. Prosecutor’s Office
investigators listening to the recordings of the pilot’s conversations
with the dispatcher at the Adler airport have not reached a
conclusion. They noted that both the pilot and the dispatcher spoke
of the bad weather conditions at the airport.

The Adler dispatchers confirm that information.

“Landing conditions at our airport were much more difficult than at
nearby Anapa and Mineralnye Vody,” one dispatcher said. “The runway
is located in a mountainous area not far from the sea. There were low,
tattered clouds and constant wind off the sea. That is what the pilot
had to land the A-320 in.

Usually pilots circle the airport waiting for the clouds to lighten
up before entering them. Five or six rotations is considered the norm
for us.”

When the plane flew in Georgian territory on its way to Sochi, the
local dispatcher informed the pilot that the clouds at the airport
of destination were lower than 100 meters, which meant that landing
was prohibited. Therefore, Capt. Grigory Grigoryan decided to return
to Yerevan.

The pilot received a new weather forecast some time after turning
around.

“Now they’ve said 150 [m. cloud height] on 1500 [m. visibility]
at 2:00,” the pilot told the dispatcher as he headed back toward
Adler. However, by the time of the flight’s descent, the weather had
turned worse again and the cloud sunk to 100 m. The pilot nonetheless
approached for a landing at Adler at 2:05. Descending to 170-200 m.,
he saw that there was no break in the clouds.

The plane began to ascend again to circle the airport and wait for
a window in the clouds. It takes about eight minutes to make a full
circle around the Adler airport. At 2:15, the plane disappeared from
the screen of the airport’s locator. Specialists think that the crash
occurred a minute or two before that.

Pilots who have landed Airbus A-320 models at Adler say that, at
the moment of the landing and crash, the plane was being pilot by a
person, not the computer. The A-320 is capable of automatic takeoff
and landing, but the Adler airport is not equipped with navigational
equipment to orient the plane’s computer. Therefore the pilot has
to land by a light beacon located beyond the runway. The plane’s
automatic direction finder indicates the direction of the beacon,
but with very low accuracy, so the pilot has to visually his course.

This is done at the moment the plane emerges from the clouds.

Besides the weather and navigational difficulties at the Adler
airport, there was another problem. According to airport personnel,
migrating birds have occupied one of the two runways – the reserve
runway – there. “We didn’t chase them away for fear of bird flu,”
an airport employee said. “All the more since the air traffic is
low now.” It is possible that, at the moment of the A-32o’s landing,
weather conditions were better on the reserve runway.

Russian Transportation Minister Igor Levitin stated yesterday that
large fragments of the airplane with the flight recorders have been
located on the seafloor. “We have no experience raising objects
from that depth in that aquatic medium,” the minister said. “And
there is no equipment for it in the Black Sea region.” He aid that
it was possible that Russia would turn to specialists from other
countries. Representatives of the French and British embassies stated
that their countries were ready to help with the deep-sea work,
should they receive an official request. The Emergencies Ministry
continues to say that it will be able to handle the work itself.