Itar-Tass, Russia
May 14 2006

Bad weather causes delay in A-320 jet’s black boxes lifting

SOCHI, May 14 (Itar-Tass) – Bad weather on the Black Sea has forced
officials steering a recovery of flight recorders of the Armenian
Airlines A-320 jet from the seabed to revise the operation schedule.

The jet crashed in the small hours of May 3 while on a maneuver for
landing at Adler airport, located in the coastal area.

A traffic controller at the seaport of the beach city of Sochi told
Itar-Tass the special sea craft Navigator had to suspend a search in
the area of jet crash six kilometers away from the coast and to
return to the port.

The operation was suspended at 17:00 hours Moscow time, but earlier
reports indicated the Navigator’s crew had managed to obtain the
first television image of the flight recorders lying at the depth of
496 meters.

The images were produced with the aid of a top-notch research complex
Kalmar.

At the time of reporting, the area had northwest wind 15 meters per
second to 17 meters per second strong and a moderate swell of the sea
(3 to 4 points on the Douglas scale).

The Kalmar equipment was provided by the department for salvage and
emergency operations based in the port city of Novorossisk.

The designer of the complex, the Russian corporation Tetis-Pro, made
the Kalmar for the Russian Navy. When the A-320 crashed, the complex,
which includes a sonic depth-tester having the functions of a
side-looking sonar, was still in the phase of testing.

The Kalmar is capable of tracking down objects at the depths of down
to 600 meters.

Other ships engaged in the recovery operation also returned to Sochi
port.