Interfax News Agency, Russia
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 17, 2008 Sunday 1:54 PM MSK

Crew of Belarusian plane must not be blamed for crash in Yerevan –
Minsk

MINSK Feb 17

The crew of a Belavia plane which crash- landed at the Yerevan
airport last week, must not be blamed for the accident, the
Belarusian Transport Ministry said.

"The crew acted professionally in compliance with the flight
instruction intended specifically for this type of aircraft," head of
the ministry’s Aviation Department Vadim Melnik told Interfax on
Sunday.

"In that situation the Belarusian crew acted professionally," he
said.

Melnik arrived in Moscow to coordinate an inter-line group of experts
to investigate the crash.

"An updated report will be released in a couple of days," he said,
noting that special equipment required to read the plane’s black box
is in Moscow.

Earlier reports said that a CRJ-100LR (BOMBARDIER) plane of the
Belavia airline lurched leftward after take-off, turned upside down
and crashed on Thursday.

There were 18 passengers – citizens of Belarus, Armenia, Georgia,
Russia and Ukraine – and three crew aboard. No one as killed, but
seven people sustained injuries and were hospitalized in Yerevan.

A criminal investigation was launched on charges of violating flight
safety regulations and rules of operating a plane, according to the
Belarusian Transport Prosecutor’s Office.