CAPTAIN”S PERFORMANCE WAS EXEMPLARY

Panorama.am
17:11 09/05/06

Exclusive Interview of Michael Bagdasarov, Armavia air company owner,
to Panorama.am (part 2) – In the course of the last 3 days Armavia
lost 2 airliners A-320. How will this loss impact the performance of
the air company, particularly in regards to flight management?

– First, many companies have expressed their assistance.

– According to our sources, the first assistance was rendered by air
company Siberia.

– Assistance was rendered by Siberia and Souz Atlant as well as
Volgograd airlines and Aeroport. Besides, as mentioned earlier, we
have already received new airliners. Therefore, the number of our
airplanes reaches 5, which will be enough for normal performance.

– There are some concerns that the company will go bankrupt.

– I may disappoint those people who think that Armavia will go
bankrupt. Our personnel will get stronger after such bitter experience.

– We had an impression that they wanted to put all the responsibility
for the accident on the captain of the airliner G. Grigoryan. What
is your personal opinion in this regard?

– These are stupid things expressed by non-responsible people. They
also said that there was not enough fuel in the airliner. However,
the place of the accident was contaminated with fuel. The recordings
between the air controller and the pilot prove that the performance
of the captain of the plane was exemplary which cannot be said about
the air controller.

– Is that true that the air controller was arguing with the captain
as some mass media say referring to Georgian sources?

– No, they were not arguing. But the point is that the air controller
sent the plane to the second round while the plane was almost to land.

However, we cannot assert that the accident happened due to
air controller’s fault. The air controller just worsened the
situation. There are series of issues why the accident could take
place.

There is a transcript where the air controller twice tried to send
the plane back to Yerevan and then again to Sochi after which it sent
the plane to the second round.

However, why coundn’t the pilot land the airplane? No one has enough
proof to blame the pilot in that, thus far. It was an experienced,
high-level pilot who was one of the best. He had previous experience
in Krasnodar and knew the location very well…

– We had an impression that some Russian parties are not very
interested in finding the “black box” recorder. What do you think?

– Impressions may be different. The Russian side is seriously engaged
in the investigation of the case. It should be noted that there is
also the Airbus which is interested to take the case to its end. As
far as Russians are concerned, it depends who we look at. The head of
commission is very interested. If we look on state bodies, they are
interested, too. May be someone is not interested. There were rumors
that there was not enough fuel or that the pilot was not experienced
weren’t they.

– They also say that there was no navigator on board.

– There was a navigator and a technician on board.

There is a group of people who just make up such stories, do you
understand?

– Thank you for the interview. Once again we render our
condolences.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress