FRENCH EXPERTS SEARCH FOR BLACK BOXES AT BLACK SEA CRASH SITE

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 11 2006

SOCHI, May 11 (RIA Novosti) – French experts have left the Black Sea
port of Sochi in a bid to pinpoint the location of the flight data
recorders of an Armenian airliner that crashed last week killing 113
people, emergency services said Thursday.

The black boxes are seen as the key to understanding why the Airbus
plunged into the sea in stormy weather six kilometers (3.7 miles)
from the coast early on the morning of May 3.

Vladimir Yerygin, who oversees technological support for the operation
to recover the recorders, said the specialists from Toulouse-based
Airbus were planning to use advanced hydroacoustic equipment to find
the precise location of the black boxes and later recover them using
a deep-sea vehicle.

“The equipment brought by French experts consists of four buoys placed
on small speedboats,” Yerygin said. “They will help us to establish
the precise location of the black boxes.”

The official said the main group of French experts would set up a
data-processing center on board one ship, and another ship with the
Kalmar deep-sea craft would continue scanning the seabed for parts
of the A-320.