Recovery operation at Black Sea crash site continues
MOSCOW, May 9 (RIA Novosti) – Rescue teams are continuing Tuesday an
international effort to retrieve the flight recorders of an Armenian
plane that crashed off Russia’s Black Sea coast last week.
The Kapitan Beklemishev ship with deep-sea sonar has been working at
the site of the crash through the night.
One of the rescue ships, 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.
The vehicle has been reported to experience some technical problems,
but the Russian transportation ministry said it would be ready to
start the search for black boxes Tuesday evening.
The Cheliken ship from the Russian navy is expected to arrive at the
site on Wednesday bringing the number of Russian rescue ships to four.
French specialists with equipment needed to search for the flight
recorders are also expected to arrive in Sochi, a Russian resort near
the site the tragedy, on Tuesday.
The transportation ministry Monday set emergency headquarters to
organize technical assistance in an effort to recover parts of an
Airbus A-320 airliner that crashed into the sea on Wednesday, killing
all 113 people on board.
Fifty-one bodies have been recovered so far at the site of the crash.