In the early hours of May 3, the Yerevan-Sochi “A-320” plane crashed in the Black Sea. This was the first crash in its kind since Armenia’s declaration of independence. 113 people died as a result of the crash, including eight staff members, 125 passengers of which 6 were children.
Seventy-seven passengers were citizens of Armenia, while 27 were from Russia and one was from Ukraine.
Last night, 48 bodies were taken out of the water and work is currently underway in the search for more bodies. The “A-320” plane, which belongs to “Armavia” airlines (number 32009) fell in the Black Sea-five kilometers away from to the coast near the city of Sochi. The crashed pieces of the plane were found 350 meters deep below sea level.
May 5th and 6th have been declared as mourning days in Armenia and the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh. The Russian Federation has also declared may 5th as a day of mourning. On these days, the national flags of Armenia will be lowered and all cultural events will be prohibited. With the order of the president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, Defense Minister of Armenia and co-chairman of the Russian-Armenian intergovernmental commission Serge Sargsyan will leave for Russia with the purpose of finding out the motives and circumstances of the accident.
Accident chronology
The Yerevan-Sochi airplane departed at 1:47 a.m. local time in Armenia. Due to the poor weather conditions, head of the staff at the Georgian zone decided to return to Yerevan while at the Sochi airport. The airplane then set off for Yerevan. After a while, the dispatchers of the Sochi airport announced that the weather had cleared up and the plane could prepare for a landing. The “A-320” plane changed its course of direction once again and headed for Sochi. As the plane approached the airport and was ready to make a landing, the weather changed and the pilot was warned to go back up and make a turn around the airport. After a while, the airplane couldn’t be detected by radar. At 2:15 a.m. the Sochi airport lost contact with the plane six minutes before the scheduled landing. The dispatchers tried to establish contact with the airplane staff for nearly 15-20 minutes. After a couple of unsuccessful tries, they declared a crisis at 3:35 Armenian time. After a while, it turned out that the plane had crashed in the Black Sea.
There are many rumors going around about the plane crash. But police have denied the possibility of a terrorist act. In light of the accident, the prosecutors of Krasnodar in Russia have brought up a criminal case based on the 263rd article of the criminal code (violation of regulations of piloting leading to the death of one or more passengers). The Chief Prosecution of Armenia has also brought up a criminal case based on the 241st article of Armenia’s criminal code (violation of regulations on security and use of transportation means, such as buses, airplanes and ships). During a briefing held yesterday morning, head of the chief department of Armenia’s civil aviation Artyom Movsesyan announced that the Russian side will mainly investigate the accident, while the Armenian side will only help. Head of the Northern Caucasus Internal Transportation Affairs department Igor Zhorkov said the following in regard to the possible reasons for the crash:
“It was either an error committed by the pilot, or technical difficulties. Perhaps the airplane staff is to blame.”
However, everyone is of the opinion that it was due to poor weather conditions. According to police, this is only a preliminary version. The real reason for the accident will be revealed after the investigation. It’s worth mentioning that specialists from the French “Airbus” company have already paid a visit to Sochi where they will take part in the investigation of the “Armavia” plane crash. “Armavia” representative Andrei Aghajanov says that the plane was technically equipped and had a professional staff.
According to Artsyom Movsesyan, the “A-320” plane had been totally checked-up on in April and that can’t serve as a firm basis for the accident. The plane was even checked-up on before the departure. The head of the civil aviation chief department even denied the possibility of shortage of fuel. According to him, there was ten tons of fuel in the plane, when 3.5 tons of fuel was enough for the Yerevan-Sochi flight. In spite of that, let’s not forget that the plane had some problems in Paris a couple of months ago when the “Armavia” airlines had announced that the plane had some technical difficulties and the flight would be postponed for a couple of hours. As a result, many passengers returned their tickets. The plane also had problems in Amsterdam and “Armavia” was forced to transfer its passengers to another plane.
According to minister of the Russian government’s Emergency Situations Department Victor Beltseyev, the plane crashed into the sea at a 60 degree angle. Experts consider the discovery of the “black box” impossible. Head of the air transportation investigation center of the International Aviation Committee Rafael Teymurazov has this to say:
“I don’t think that anything may be found in the depths of the Black Sea.”
Besides that, the search is difficult due to the depth of the water and poor weather conditions. The “A-320” plane crashed in the section of the sea where the depth below sea level is 500 meters. However, divers can only dive down to 200 meters. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia has provided robot and locator machines, which will be able to conduct a search below sea level. But the 4 point fluttering of waves has created obstacles for the search/rescue team. Despite that, the team has managed to bring some broken pieces up to sea level.
Georgians have plane recordings
While the search/rescue team is searching for the “black box”, representative of the “Georgian airlines” open-stock company Georgi Karbelashvili told journalists yesterday that they have sound recordings of the airplane staff and the Georgian dispatchers. 90% of the Yerevan-Sochi route passes over Georgia and obviously Georgian airports have kept in touch with the dispatchers and the Armenian airline staff. According to Georgi Karbelashvili, at first, the Armenian airplane flew towards the Black Sea, after which it came back. But it went back towards Sochi after coming to the city of Kutais. Karbelashvili says that the Tbilisi and Batumi airports were ready to receive the Armenian airplanes. In fact, as heard on the sound recordings, the Georgian dispatchers have warned the airplane staff about the poor weather conditions in Sochi a couple of times and suggested landing in Georgia. But later, according to Karbelashvili, Russian dispatchers have assured that the weather has cleared up and everything is back to normal. During the flight, the Georgian dispatchers have asked about the amount of fuel in the plane. The staff has assured them that there is enough fuel for a two and a half hour flight. What amazed Karbelashvili was that the investigators hadn’t asked him for the sound recordings of the staff in the plane, so he was the one who presented them to the presses.
Armenia has been getting telegrams of condolence from different parts of the world for the past couple of days. Even the Pope of Rome Benedict the 16th sent a telegram of condolence.