Armenia to begin second day of morning for plane crash victims

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 6 2006

YEREVAN, May 6 (Itar-Tass) — Armenia is entering the second day of
morning for the victims of the May 3 Airbus-320 passenger plane crash.

Flags are flying at half-mast in the country and its diplomatic
missions abroad.

A religious service for the victims will be held at Yerevan’s main
cathedral on Saturday evening. The head of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, Catholicos Garegin II, will lead the service. Similar services
will be held in all foreign dioceses of the Armenian Church.

A fund raising campaign for the families of the crash victims is under
way. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has donated his one-month
salary for the purpose, presidential press secretary Viktor Sogomonyan
told Itar-Tass.

The president receives about $700 a month. Donations by members of
the presidential administration will be transferred to a special
account opened at the Armenian Finance and Economy Ministry, he said.

On Friday, hundreds of people prayed for victims of the crash at
the Armenian church at Moscow’s Vagankovo cemetery. The head of
the Russian diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Bishop Ezras
(Nersisyan) led the service.

“People are carrying flowers and lighting candles near the list of
the crash victims,” a church source told Itar-Tass.

Prayers for the air crash victims will be said in all temples of the
Armenian Apostolic Church on May 5-6. There are about 50 Armenian
churches in Russia.

A commemoration service for the crash victims was also conducted
at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral as well as other Orthodox
cathedrals.

Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II presented condolences on
the death of the plane passengers and crewmembers.

The Russian Orthodox Church is praying for the dead and presenting
condolences to all residents of Armenia, especially to the friends
and families of the air crash victims, Alexy II said.

The patriarch will commemorate the crash victims during the May 6
service on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, a spokesman for the Moscow
Patriarchate, Vladimir Vigilyansky, told Itar-Tass.

Meanwhile, the search operation is continuing on the Black Sea where
an Armenian Airbus-320 passenger plane crashed on May 3.

Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived at the scene on Friday
evening.

So far 42 bodies of victims have been identified, an official at the
Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said.

“Forensic tests on the victims’ bodies are nearing completion,”
the prosecutor said, adding that samples had been obtained for DNA
analysis of body fragments.

Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said 53 bodies had been
recovered. The remains of 26 passengers were flown to Yerevan earlier
on Friday.

Investigators from the Prosecutor-General’s Office have questioned
air traffic controllers as witnesses in the case.

Sources at the Prosecutor-General’s Office said “the investigators
keep studying a large amount of retrieved documents, including
technical ones.”

“The available fragments of the plane are being examined in cooperation
with specialists. All information collected so far is being checked on,
verified and summarised. The crew’s verbal exchanges with the ground
services are being studied and witnesses questioned, including the
personnel of air traffic control services,” the sources said.

Earlier, Georgia handed over to Armenia important materials that
may help to investigate the A-320 airliner crash, an official at the
Armenian Embassy in Georgia told Itar-Tass.

Members of the investigating group were in Tbilisi for two days and
left Georgia on Friday.

On Thursday, the Georgian air traffic control service provided
investigators and reporters with the recording of the conversation
with the plane crew when the aircraft was in the area controlled by
Georgia and expressed readiness to cooperate with Russian and Armenian
specialists in the investigation.

The search operation involves 23 ships, two Ka-32 and Mi-8 helicopters,
the research ship “Katran”, which has an automatic bathyscaphe,
an underwater “Kalmar” device with a multi-ray sonar, and a Be-200
amphibious plane.

Up to 10 percent of the plane’s fragments have so far been raised from
the bottom of the Black Sea, the Emergencies Ministry’s Operations
Department Director Gennady Korotkin, who heads the department’s task
team now working in the area of the accident, said.

The recovery of the Airbus A-320 flight recorders is crucial for
finding out the cause of the crash. French specialists detected the
flight recorders emitting radio signals at a depth of 680 meters.

The Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia plunged into the
Black Sea as it was making a landing manoeuvre in the early hours of
May 3. The accident claimed the lives of 113 people.