EXPERTS NEED ABOUT 2 MONTHS TO ANALYSE DATA FROM CRASHED PLANE

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 31, 2006 Wednesday

It will take a month and a half to two months to analyse data in the
flight data recorders from the Armenian Airbus-320 passenger plane
that crashed in the Black Sea off Sochi on May 3, Transport Minister
Igor Levitin said.

He said about 300 parameters would need to be analysed.

Levitin said Armenian specialists would help with the work because
conversations among the pilots and between the plane and ground
control were in Armenian.

Two flight data recorders from the plane were brought to Paris last
Saturday. Specialists will examine and open the so-called “black
boxes” to retrieve memory microchips that record different flight
data parameters and conversations in the cockpit.

After that the recordings will be analysed in Moscow by experts from
Russia, Armenia, and France.

The head of the CIS Interstate Aviation Committee, Tatyana Anodina,
said about 2,000 planes of the Airbus-320 type are operating around
the world, and everybody wants to get full and objective data about
the accident as soon as possible.

According to Anodina, two black boxes from the crashed plane record
conversations in the cockpit and plane system data. “Unfortunately
the voice recorder was seriously damaged but the data recorder,
according to preliminary information, is in excellent condition.

Recordings will be analysed in Russia, using equipment from France
where the Airbus-320 airliner was designed,” she said.

There were three flight data recorders aboard the plane but no signals
from the third one have ever been registered, which suggests that
its radio beacon was knocked off during the crash.

Flight data recorders used on aircraft of the Airbus-320 type withstand
the depth of up to 6,000 meters for 30 days, experts from the French
air crash investigation bureau said.

Each flight recorder weighs 10 kilograms, including a seven-kilogram
armoured casing for the gadget. The casing can withstand water pressure
at a depth of 6,000 meters, the temperature of 1,100 degrees Celsius,
and the compression of 2.2 tonnes.

Of 113 people who were abroad the plane, 51 bodies have been found
so far.

The Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia plunged into the
Black Sea as it was making a landing manoeuvre in the early hours of
May 3. The accident claimed the lives of 113 people.