Controller may have contributed to Black Sea crash – airline
17:50 | 06/ 05/ 2006
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 6 2006
YEREVAN, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – An aircraft traffic controller on duty
when an Armenian plane crashed into the Black Sea killing 113 people
may have played a role in the tragedy, the owner of the airline in
the tragedy said Saturday.
Armavia Airlines head Mikhail Bagdasarov said a complete version of
a recorded conversation between the air traffic controller at the
Russian airport and the pilot of the Armenian plane showed that the
pilot had acted correctly.
Bagdasarov said that a recording between Airbus pilot Grigory Grigoryan
and traffic controller at Adler airport previously made public had
been incomplete.
“The complete version of the taped conversation shows that the pilot
of the A-320 jet was doing everything right, which cannot be said
about the air traffic controller,” Bagdasarov said in an interview
with Armenian Internet site Panorama.am.
He said the ground controller had sent told the pilot to make a second
circle before landing when the pilot was almost landing already.
“He had nearly 200 meters left to the runway when he was sent back
to make a second circle. And this was at a time when the air traffic
controller had no right to order but could only advise,” Bagdasarov
said.
However, he added he did not blame the air traffic controller.
“In such situations, you cannot say that the air traffic controller
made the mistake that caused the accident,” he said. “The controller
made mistakes which made the situation worse.”
He said there could be a combination of reasons that caused the crash
but cautioned against putting the whole blame on the pilot.
“He was an experienced, good pilot, one of the best,” Bagdasarov said.
The Airbus was flying from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to Adler
airport, which services the popular Russian resort of Sochi, when it
crashed six kilometers off the Russian coast early Wednesday morning.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said bad weather most likely
caused the tragedy.
In comments on rumors that the crew was incomplete, the Armavia owner
said the crew included both a navigator and flight engineer.
“How can a plane take off without a navigator?” he said. “There is just
a group of people who spend their time making up this sort of gossip.”
Armavia Airline set up on December 12, 1996 is Armenia’s national
airline company. On June 5, 2005, Bagdasarov, president of MIKA
Armenia Trading, became the owner of 100% of the company’s shares.
Armavia passenger traffic totaled 507,000 in 2005 against 380,000
in 2004.
Armenia’s civil aviation commission said it would hear comments from
air traffic controller of the Adler airport Saturday, spokeswoman
Gayane Davtyan said.
She denied rumors that the controller was being hidden for fear of
the victims’ families.
“Nobody is hiding the ground controller from anyone,” Davtyan said,
adding that he was working with commission experts on decoding the
recordings.