ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 2, 2006 Friday 04:42 PM EST

A-320 flight recorders handed over to forensics

Investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office have transferred
to experts the flight recorders of a A-320 jet of Armenian Airlines,
which crashed near Sochi on May 3.

“Forensic experts and specialists from the Interstate Aviation
Committee are studying the flight recorders,” a source at the
Prosecutor General’s Office said on Friday. “The DNA tests of bodily
fragments are underway.”

Transport Minister Igor Levitin said earlier that it would take 1.5-2
months to decipher information form the flight recorders. The
commission will have to analyze about 300 parameters. Armenian
experts will take part in the investigation, as the crew spoke
Armenian.

The crash killed 113 people, and over 100 aggrieved parties have been
named in the case. The investigation is being done in close
cooperation with Armenians.