Divers search for 113 people killed in crash

Boats laden with dead bodies and twisted metal sailed into the palm-fringed harbour of Sochi, Russia, today, carrying the remains of some of the 113 people who died when an Armenian airliner smashed into the Black Sea.

The plane went down about 2:15am (11.15 Irish time Tuesday) in heavy rain and poor visibility as it was approaching the airport in Adler, about 12 miles south of Sochi, a city wedged between the sea and soaring snow-capped mountains.

The cause of the crash was not immediately determined and divers were attempting to retrieve the Airbus A-320’s recorders from the deep, wave-chopped crash site about 3.5 miles offshore.

A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s office, Nataliya Vishnyakova, dismissed the possibility of terrorism and other officials pointed to the rough weather or pilot error as the likely cause.

Rescue boats battled stiff winds and heavy seas to try to retrieve bodies and fragments of the plane, which was leased by Armavia, Armenia’s largest airline. By late afternoon, 46 bodies had been brought into the port and taken to the city’s two morgues for identification.

Outside one of the morgues, about 100 stood grimly, rushing forward every time a truck carrying remains pulled up to the gates. “People want to know anything just now, anything,” said 38-year-old Aryag Ghagosian, who said a friend’s brother was on the flight that originated in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

“The women are all home crying, the men are all standing here waiting. What else can we do?” said a 47-year-old man who gave his name only as Misha, reflecting the wide distrust of authorities within Sochi’s large Armenian community.

He said his brother, sister-in-law and nephew were aboard the crashed plane, but he didn’t know if their bodies were among those recovered. “They say they’re identifying the bodies, but we’re not learning anything,” he complained.

At Yerevan’s Zvarnots Airport, from which the doomed plane took off, other relatives were in agony.

“I’ve lost my sweetheart, my son!” 50-year-old Anait Bagusian wailed as doctors hovered nearby because she had swooned several times.

Samvel Oganesian said his 23-year-old son Vram and his friend Hamlet Abgarian had been heading to Sochi for vacation.

“Why did he go?” Oganesian asked in anguish, over and over again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian President Robert Kocharian declared Friday a day of mourning in both countries, the Kremlin said.

The airline said that 26 Russians, one Ukrainian and one Georgian were among the passengers, while the rest were Armenian citizens. But Interfax cited Armenian civil aviation spokesman Gayane Davtian as saying no Georgians or Ukrainians were aboard.

Twenty-five boats, many carrying divers, were involved in the search, and a deep-sea robot was to be used to try to recover the plane’s recorders, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said. But Rudolf Teymurazov of Russia’s Intergovernmental Aviation Committee expressed doubt the recorders could be found because water at the crash site is as deep 1.2 miles.

The plane broke up on impact and passengers’ personal belongings and plane fragments were found scattered over an area spreading one mile from the crash site.

Emergency ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said the plane disappeared from radar screens while trying to make a repeat attempt at an emergency landing. However, Interfax quoted the Russian air control agency as saying that the plane’s crew had not declared any emergency.

Armavia deputy commercial deputy Andrei Agadzhanov said in Yerevan that the crew had communicated with ground controllers while the plane was flying over the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. The ground controllers said the weather in Adler was poor but the plane could still land, Agadzhanov said. Just before the landing, however, the ground controllers told the crew to circle in the air again before approaching the airport and then it crashed.

Agadzhanov said the crew was highly experienced, the aeroplane was in good condition and that weather conditions were “certainly” the cause.

The plane was manufactured in 1995 and underwent full-scale servicing a year ago, he said.

Agadzhanov said that the airline’s deputy general director, Vyacheslav Yaralov, had been aboard.

Investigators from the airline and Armenian and French aviation authorities were to fly to the crash scene later Wednesday.

Armavia is Armenia’s largest airline. It is 70 percent owned by Russia’s second-largest airline Sibir, and it acquired routes from Armenian Airlines and Armenian International Airlines when those operations fell into financial troubles.