RIA Novosti, Russia
May 8 2006

Russia sets up tech. HQ to find plane’s black boxes in Black Sea
16:02 | 08/ 05/ 2006

MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s transportation minister has
ordered that emergency headquarters be set up to organize technical
assistance in an international effort to retrieve the flight
recorders of an Armenian plane that crashed off Russia’s Black Sea
coast last week, the transportation ministry said Monday.

The ministry said that Igor Levitin had appointed Alexander
Davydenko, head of the Federal Sea and River Transportation Agency
(Rosmorrechflot) to oversee the headquarters, which will include
Russian rescuers, experts from the Interstate Aviation Committee, and
French specialists.

The Airbus A-320 airliner crashed into the sea on Wednesday, killing
all 113 people on board.

Three Russian ships are now working at site of the crash – the Zaliv,
the Kapitan Beklemishev, and the Cheliken. The Zaliv hosts a new
Kalmar deep-sea search vehicle designed to locate parts of the
wreckage and flight recorders, which are seen as the key to
explaining the cause of the tragedy.

French specialists with equipment needed to search for the flight
recorders are expected to arrive in Sochi on Tuesday.