RIA Novosti, Russia
May 8 2006

Images of Black Sea plane wreck flight recorders expected
11:24 | 08/ 05/ 2006

SOCHI, May 8 (RIA Novosti) – Rescuers expect to receive Monday images
of objects believed to be the flight recorders of an Armenian Airbus
A-320 airliner that crashed off Russia’s Black Sea coast last week,
killing all 113 people on board.

A rescue worker said experts had obtained hydroacoustic data using a
new Kalmar deep-sea search vehicle working at the scene to locate
pieces of the wreckage and the flight recorders, which are key to
identifying the cause of the tragedy.

“Several objects have been found with the same coordinates as the
radio signals picked up by French experts, believed to be coming from
the flight recorders,” the rescuer said. “If these objects are the
black boxes, we will try to retrieve them.”

He said experts had established that the objects were at a depth of
around 400-450 meters (about 1,470 feet).

Experts earlier said the plane parts had been discovered at a depth
of 680 meters (2,230 feet) and were skeptical over the possibility of
retrieving them from thick sulfuric hydride sludge on the seabed.