Russia, Armenia in mourning

Peninsula On-line, Qatar
May 6 2006

A young woman throws flowers into the sea during a mourning ceremony
for victims of the Airbus 320 plane crash in Adler near Russia’s
Black Sea city of Sochi.

SOCHI: As Armenia and Russia marked an official day of mourning
yesterday, grieving relatives cast flowers into the Black Sea at the
spot where an Armenian jet plunged into the waters, killing all 113
on board.

To the sound of mournful music and the boom of a fog horn, they
scattered carnations and roses over the waters six kilometres offshore
from the Russian resort of Sochi, where the Armenian Airbus A320
crashed on Wednesday.

A woman holding a photograph of two young newly-weds who died in the
crash fainted on the deck of the boat that took them to the site.
Several others also passed out.

Transport Minister Igor Levitin, who was in Sochi, said it was
essential to find the corpses of the many victims still lost in the
sea – more than half of the people on the plane. Only 50 bodies have
been recovered so far, according to the emergency situations ministry.

A first plane carrying 26 bodies arrived at the airport in the Armenian
capital, Yerevan, yesterday after an initial delay, apparently due to
a lack of coffins. “The victims’ bodies are unrecognisable, horribly
disfigured. A mother wouldn’t know her own son,” said one young man
who had returned from Sochi after failing to find his brother-in-law,
his eyes red from crying and fatigue.

Flags flew at half mast across Armenia, radio and television channels
played sad music and memorial services were held at churches across
the country.

Russian officials and members of the public also laid flowers at
the Armenian embassy in Moscow for the victims of the accident. The
crash has shocked the two countries, which have long had close ties.
Meanwhile dozens of vessels as well as helicopters continued efforts
to recover from the sea the victims’ corpses and the black box flight
recorders that might help establish why the plane crashed. Bad weather
is thought to be the cause of the crash, according to investigators.

Relatives face the grim task of identifying their dead loved ones
from photographs pinned on a hotel wall in Sochi, many of the bodies
battered and bloated from submersion in the water.

On board were 85 Armenian citizens, 26 Russians, one Georgian and
one Ukrainian, according to a list published at Yerevan airport.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress