French experts trying to detect A-320 flight recorders’ signals
by Galina Solodovnikova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 4, 2006 Thursday 03:54 AM EST
The French experts have begun the search for the flight recorders of
the Armenian Airbus A-320 that plunged into the Black Sea on May 3.
“Despite the fact that the French have brought along all the necessary
equipment for the search of flight recorders, they are unlikely to
be found,” technical director for safety problems of the Interstate
Aviation Committee /IAC/ Rudolf Teimurazov told Itar-Tass.
He explained that “the equipment of the French experts has to detect
signals emitted by the flight recorders, but even if these signals come
in, it will be extremely difficult to pinpoint their exact location.”
The IAC remarked that “flight recorders of foreign origin have small
beacons emitting signals at a certain frequency using their own
electric charge.”
According to head of the Federal Air Navigation Service Alexander
Neradko, “the crashed A-320 had at least two flight recorders that
logged voice messages and flight parameters.”
Deputy head of the Emergency Situations Ministry’s operations
department Andrei Legoshin said the rescuers engaged in the operation
at the A-320 plane crash near Sochi, are monitoring and cleaning fuel
spills caused by the accident and collecting aircraft fragments.
“The second task for today is to scan the sea ground at the crash
site, to detect and hoist plane fragments,” Legoshin told reporters,
adding that the sea has calmed which makes the job much easier.