BLACK BOXES ARE NOT THE END. THE HARDEST THING IS TO TELL THE TRUTH
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir.am
24 May 06

Will the black boxes of the Armenian plane help to reveal the causes
of the plane crash? The recorders have already been retrieved from
the sea bottom and sent for deciphering. In fact, the most difficult
and the most important thing is done, and the only remaining thing
is to decipher the information and tell the society the real cause
of the death of 113 people. The location and retrieval of the black
boxes caused a cheer-up. On the other hand, this process was rather
ambiguous. The first recorder was found on May 22, whereas two or
three days before the Russian minister of transport, the co-chair of
the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Committee Igor Levitin, who
led the search team on the first days of the search after the crash
in Sochi, announced that the black boxes might not be found at all,
and the radio transmitter could have simply come off the recorder.

However, soon after this statement the black boxes were located
and lifted from the sea bottom within two days. The Russian ORTV
even broadcast a story about the achievement of the Russian search
equipment. The experts were even photographed against the black
boxes, with a content smile, as if what they had found was a treasure
of pirates rather than the only evidence to the crash, which took
113 lives.

Was Igor Levitin in such despair as not to bear it any more and
announce while the search was underway that it was impossible to
retrieve the black boxes? Why did he form an atmosphere of despair
instead of inspiring hope? Usually government officials do the opposite
thing, especially the representatives of the Soviet School.

They prefer hiding the truth till the end, regarding it as danger
against the government system. Independent from the sphere, truth
is believed to endanger the leadership, and it was surprising that
Levitin and other Russian officials preferred telling the truth that
the black boxes might not be found. Weren’t their words true?

This suggestion is supported by the fast, even very fast location
and retrieval of the black boxes. Those days of uncertainty ended
up in the settlement of the issue within 48 hours. The search team
suddenly realized that the recorders could be stuck in mud and began
clearing the mud.

All this would be very encouraging if it were not that surprising.

Why did Levitin make such a statement if he was not aware of the
details of the search? And generally it is difficult to explain why
on those days the Russian officials did not hesitate to make official
statements on the plane crash, with the context of impossibility
of revealing the real cause of the crash. What happened that the
recorders were all of a sudden retrieved? What changed? As long ago
as May 18 the leader of the Nor Zhamanakner Party Aram Karapetyan
announced in Yerevan that something had changed. Karapetyan said,
however, that something had changed, and the recorders would not be
retrieved. If they lifted the recorders from the bottom, it means
something changed twice, and Aram Karapetyan did not manage to inform
the Armenian society or maybe he did not know.

It is difficult to say how many times within the past two weeks, but
it is evident even without Aram Karapetyan, that something changed,
nevertheless. The Russian mass media are still stressing the shortage
of fuel. Again they refer to an anonymous source. In this case,
however, putting forward a new suggestion or refreshing the old one
is mere hastiness. Once the black boxes were found, it is not correct
and decent to start circulating new guesses and ideas when soon the
information of the black boxes will be deciphered. If deciphering
failed, it would be justified to resume guesses but currently it
does not seem to be rewarding. It is notable that over the past
days, when the search was underway, no guesses were made. And their
comeback shows that the situation has changed. If it is the retrieval
of the black boxes, this change should have retained the silence and
created an atmosphere of expectation. Whereas the opposite occurred,
which suggests that the retrieval of the black boxes was the result
of a change.

In this situation it becomes more urgent to find out what had
changed. This may even give a more real picture of the plane crash
than the black box data. Why did they first put forward suggestions
leading to the mistake of the pilot, whereas now they have returned
to the shortage of fuel. Why is Igor Levitin going to represent the
Russian side to the committee, whereas the Armenian side will be
represented by Gagik Galstyan, an air safety investigator of the
Department of Civil Aviation. Are the other, higher officials busy?

Are they busier than Levitin, or is the political schedule in Russia
less tough? Why had the investigators of the Armenian Office of
Attorney General returned from Sochi before the search was over. Was
money a problem to keep two investigators there for two months or
maybe there were not enough people to plant trees in Armenia?

It seems that the hardest thing was to find the black boxes, and the
data of the black boxes would bring peace to the souls of victims and
their families. The hardest thing, however, is going to be telling
the truth, for the only harder thing is hiding the truth.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress