RUSSIA TO RECOVER PLANE’S FLIGHT RECORDERS FROM BLACK SEA

Irish Examiner, Ireland
May 16 2006

Russian authorities today launched an operation to recover the
flight recorders from an Armenian passenger plane that crashed in
the Black Sea.

A robotic device with a hydraulic arm will be used on the sea floor
in a bid to bring up the “black boxes”.

The authorities hope the recorders will help determine the cause of
the May 3 crash of the Armavia Airbus A-320, which plunged into the
sea in heavy rain and poor visibility as it approached the airport
on a flight from the Armenian capital Yerevan to the Russian resort
city of Sochi, killing all 113 people on board.

An official involved in the operation said the recovery device was
lowered from a ship and reached the sea floor, where the recorders
were believed to be lying about five 15 feet apart at a depth of 1600
feet, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.