RT-1000 DEEP WATER ROBOT BEGINS A-320 BLACK BOXES LIFTING
by Dmitry Nezdorovin

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 16, 2006 Tuesday

The RT-1000 deep water device on Tuesday began a dive into the Black
Sea at the site of the crash of the Armenian airbus A-320 in order to
spot and lift from the water two flight data recorders of the plane,
the operation’s technical support headquarters told Itar-Tass. The
operation is conducted from board the Navigator special ship.

The Navigator ship with the robot was in the designated area at 06:20,
Moscow time and the crew began the operation, Itar-Tass was told by
telephone from the Navigator. The robot was installed on the ship
on Monday.

The robot was brought to Sochi from Novorossiisk on board the Kapitan
Beklemishev rescue vessel on Monday.

Last week specialists tested the robot in the area of the Tonky cape
just opposite Gelendzhik. According to the head of the special ship’s
crew, specialist of the Yuzhmorgeologiya federal state institution
Igor Lagoida, the apparatus was designed for lifting geological
specimens form the seabed and examining underwater oil and natural
gas pipelines. It is for the first time to fulfil the task of lifting
a plane’s black boxes.

According to the head of the Russian Transport Ministry’s sea and
river transport agency Rosmorrechtrans, Alexander Davydenko, the
RT-1000 had earlier not taken part in such operations and only lifted
from the seabed geological samples of less than 20 kilogrammes from
minor depths. “In these conditions the robot is capable of lifting
the plane’s fragments under 12 kilogrammes and two flight recorders
weighing seven kilogrammes each,” Davydenko indicated.

RT-1000 is c complex consisting of three parts, the largest is a
container with control equipment. The next segment with photo and
television equipment will go to the bottom of the sea and examine it.

The third device is a hydraulic elevating manipulator working in all
directions. “The RT-1000 will work at a depth of up to 500 metres
in an area of 20×20 metres. The robot will inspect the territory by
inches,” said the Rosmorrechtrans head.

According to captain of the Navigator Ivan Bezborodov, “The vessel has
a system of dynamic positioning that allows it to stay in a circle 10
metres in radius, which will make it possible for the robotic device
to work normally in deep sea.

The operation is expected to take three days.

Accoridng to available information, the plane’s flight data recorders
are at a depth of 496 metres, the distance between the recorders is
some five metres.

The airbus A-320 of the Armavia company fell into the Black Sea on
the night of May 3 during landing approach at the Sochi airport. The
catastrophe claimed the lives of 113 people.