DEEP-SEA OPERATION ON SITE OF PLANE CRASH IN BLACK SEA
by Dmitry Nezdorovin

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 16, 2006 Tuesday

A deep-sea apparatus RT- 1000 is continuing an examination of part of
the sea bottom, where the Airbus -320 crashed on May 3, searching for
the plane flight recorders. The search is going ahead in a scheduled
regime, a source from the headquarters for technical support to the
search operation told Tass.

The flight recorders have not been found yet.

The RT-100 has been working at the depth of 500 meters, examining a
territory of twenty square meters, said Chief of the Federal Agency
for Sea and River Transport Alexander Davydenko. The Navigator search
ship has been coordinating the deep-sea robot’s efforts.

The search for the flight recorders will be continued without breaks.

Search teams numbering eighteen will replace each other as the search
continues. The search for the flight recorders might take from two
to three days, weather permitting. At present, the weather in the
search area is warm and fine; the flight recorders were presumably
lost at the depth of 496 meters and should be staying at a distance
of five meters from each other.

The Airbus -320 owned by the Armenia Company crashed early on May
3 when it was making a landing approach to Sochi airport. The air
disaster claimed 113 lives.