ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 9 2006
Special ship joins search for A-320’s recorders in Black Sea
MOSCOW, May 9 (Itar-Tass) – A special search and recovery sea craft,
the Navigator, joined an operation off the Black Sea beach city of
Sochi to recover from seabed of around 680 meters deep the flight
recorders of an A-320 airbus of the Armenian airlines that crashed
there last week, killing all the 113 people aboard.
The Navigator came to the operation area from the port of
Novorossisk, sources at the Russian Transport Ministry’s press
service said.
`The sea craft has all the equipment necessary to locate the flight
recorders,’ they said.
The Navigator’s crew will also install search buoys necessary for
recovery teams as guiding devices.
In the meantime, Transport Ministry officials said the deepwater
search compound Kalmar engaged in the operation off the shores of
Sochi has developed some technological problems, but they’ll be
likely eliminated by Tuesday night.
`The ship Kapitan Beklemishev, equipped with a hydro radar, worked in
the area of the tragedy all through Monday night and early morning
Tuesday,’ a source said. `The information obtained by its crew is
being processed now.’
`May 10, the ship Cheliken will take samples of seawater from the
disaster area,’ he said.
Weather conditions in the Sochi area were quite favorable for the
search operation Tuesday morning.
Igor Levitin, the chairman of the government commission investigating
the yet unclear causes of the air crash, ordered to set up a staff
for technical assistance to the recovery of flight recorders.