BLACK BOX FROM CRASHED ARMENIAN AIRLINER RECOVERED
MosNews, Russia
May 22 2006
One of the two flight data recorders from the Armenian Airbus-320
passenger plane, which crashed into the Black Sea off Sochi on May
3, has been found Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said. The
black box recorded the conversation between the pilot and crew and
had been buried under 20-50 centimeters of silt, RIA Novosti news
agency quotes Levitin as saying.
He added that the search for the other box, which recorded flight
data and is thought to be lying 3-5 meters (10-16 feet) away from
the first one, would continue into the night.
Rescuers’ data showed that the A-320’s black boxes were at a depth of
496 meters (1,627 feet) and 5 meters (16 feet) apart from each other.
The operation started last Tuesday but was interrupted by a strong
side wind that made drift the ship which is operating the RT-1000
apparatus conducting the search for the flight recorders. Silt on
the seabed complicated the work, covering the video camera and the
searchlights. The team had to raise the apparatus several times for
cleaning. It takes 40 minutes for the apparatus to sink and as long
to come back to the surface.
Flight recorders used on aircraft of the Airbus-320 type withstand a
depth of up to 6,000 meters for 30 days, experts from the French air
crash investigation bureau said. They said that flight recorders’
radio beacons keep working during the 30-day period. One of the
flight recorders registers flight parameters, including the speed,
height and direction of the flight and the autopilot operation, each
second. The other records conversations in the cockpit. Each flight
recorder weighs 10 kilograms, including a seven-kilogram armored
casing, ITAR-TASS news agency reports.
A technical commission investigating the Sochi air crash, which is
led by the CIS Interstate Aviation Committee, has asked French experts
to help find A-320 flight recorders.
The black box has been sent to Moscow for the decoding of the final
minutes of the pilots’ conversation.
The airliner, operated by Armenia’s Armavia airlines, was flying from
the Armenian capital, Yerevan, when it crashed into the sea May 3 in
stormy weather six kilometers (3.7 miles) from Adler airport, which
services the popular Russian resort of Sochi. Of the 113 people who
were aboard the plane, 51 bodies have been found so far.