ARMENIAN AIRLINE LOSES SECOND JET
BBC NEWS:
europe/4979252.stm
2006/05/05 22:42:14 GMT
A plane belonging to the Armenian airline Armavia has been destroyed
by fire – only two days after another of its jets crashed, killing
113 people.
The Airbus A320 was in a hangar in Belgium that burned down on Thursday
night. Three other planes in the hangar were also destroyed.
Four workers were injured in the accident in Brussels.
Meanwhile Armenia and Russia have begun periods of mourning for those
killed in Wednesday’s crash in the Black Sea.
Most of the dead were Armenians on a flight from Yerevan to the
Russian Black Sea city of Sochi, which crashed as it was attempting
to land. The plane involved was also an Airbus A320.
Russian searchers believe they have found the plane’s flight recorders,
at a depth of 680m (2,200ft) in the Black Sea.
Ceremonies were held on Friday at the site of the crash, where
relatives threw wreaths of flowers into the waters, and at churches
in Armenia and Russia.
Reserve plane
It was not known what caused the accident in Brussels, where the
Armavia jet was undergoing maintenance by the Belgian company Sabena
Technics.
It means Armavia has lost two of its fleet of five Airbuses within
a few days.
“This was a reserve airliner,” said a spokesman for the airline.
“We hope this accident will not wreck our overall flight schedule,
and we will try and make up for the losses.”
Two other A-320s – one of them belonging to International Armenian
Airlines – and a Belgian warplane were also destroyed in the fire.