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Yesterday the General Department of Civil Aviation at the Government of the Republic of Armenia received the formal information of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) on the air crash off the Sochi Airport on 3 May.
Circumstances of the Accident: According to preliminary information the first communication between the Sochi ground controller and the crew of the aircraft was established at 21:10:20 UTC. The last contact with the crew took place at 22:12:35.
The crew did not respond to the controller's requests at 22:13:08, 22:12:39 and later. At the moment of establishing of the first radio contact the plane was out of the radar operation range of the Sochi Airport. The controller and the crew held a rather intensive dialogue on the factual and predictable weather conditions till 21:17p.m. The dialogue ended with the decision of the crew to return to Yerevan. After taking the decision the crew again made a request to the ground controller (at 21:26:37) about the factual weather conditions and measurements. At 21:30:49 the ground controller informed the crew that the current range of visibility is 3600, with the lower limit 170 meters. At 21:31:14 based on this information the crew decided to continue the flight to Sochi Airport. The next contact with the ground controller was established at 22:00:45, when the aircraft was at the Place Gukin descending to the height of 3600 meters and was led by the radar of Sochi Airport.
The ground controller allowed descent till 1800 meters and informed the factual weather of the runway 6 of Sochi Airport at 22:00, which conformed with the minima of the aerodrome. Then the crew was transmitted to work with the final and turn flight controllers. The crew received clearance to descend till 600 meters with 1016 Ðä³ pressure to the fourth turn. The forth turn was realized with "late turn". After correcting the deviation the aircraft approach glide slope according to the scheme. At 22:10:45 the crew reported about extending the legs and readiness to land. In response the crew received information on the distance of 10 kilometers and 4000X190 weather information, and received landing clearance. But about 30 seconds later the controller informed the actual lower limit of 100 meters and instructed to stop descent, and go round again through left-hand circle, move ascend to 600 meters and work with the with the round flight controller.
The initial analysis of the radar information shows that the movement to the second circle started at the height of about 300 meters, through the right turn and intensive ascend (maximum till 450 meters), with coincidental loss of the speed towards the earth and the further descent of the plane till the collision with the water surface.
Damage ratio of the aircraft: The aircraft is totally destroyed.
Operational instructions: Operational instructions cannot be delivered due to the lack of sufficient actual information.
Today the members of the Commission of the General Department of Civil Aviation of the RA will meet with the ground controller of the Sochi Airport. The meeting is aimed at decoding the communication records of the controller of Sochi Airport with the crew of Airbus A-320, at night on 3 May.
In result a "Decoding Document" will be signed
Details on the decoding activities will be informed later.
The General Department of Civil Aviation at the Government of Armenia deeply mourns over the victims of the air crash of Airbus A-320 of "Armavia" Airlines realizing a charter flight 967 Yerevan-Sochi on 3 May, and expresses deep and sincere condolences to their families and relatives. 
The Airbus A-320 belonging to the air company "Armavia" realizing a charter flight 967 Yerevan-Sochi crashed into the Black Sea in 5 kilometers from the Sochi airport at about 3:15a.m. Yerevan time.
There were 105 passengers aboard the plane: 67 male, 36 female and 6 children. The crew consisted of 8 people.
All people aboard the plane were killed in the crash.
The Aviation Authorities of the Russian Federation have initiated a criminal case on the fact, which is conducted by the Sochi Prosecutor's Office.
The RF Prosecutor General's Office of has
undertaken the control over the case.
According to the preliminary suppositions the adverse weather conditions in Sochi airport were the reason of the crash.
The flight control service of "Adler" airport did not allow landing of the jet because of the poor visibility conditions and according to decoded documents, the controller instructed the pilot t to discontinue approach and ascend up to 600 meters on right-hand turn.
Afterwards the plane disappeared from radar screens. Later pieces of wreckage were discovered in the sea 5 kilometers from the shore.
In compliance with the provisions of the Annex 13 of the Convention on the Civil Aviation and Article 61 of the Annex to the Decision # 1777of 11 December 2003 of the Government of the Republic of Armenia "On Establishing the Order for Investigation, Classifying and Registration of Aviation Incidents and Accidents in the Republic of Armenia," a commission of 9 experts, which was established by the order of the Director General of the GDCA has left for Sochi to take part in experts' investigation of the reasons of the crash of A-320 aircraft, which was registered (registration number EK 32009), and operated in the Republic of Armenia .
At 9:30 a.m. an extraordinary meeting took place in the RA Presidential Residency to discuss the details of the A-320 crash.
Representatives of the power structures as well as the aviation and law enforcement authorities participated in the meeting.
After the meeting A. Movsesyan, Director General of the GDCA answered the questions of the reporters who were invited to the Presidential residency.
Mr. Movsesyan provided the details of the accident, and formally denied the opinions that the crash was the result of the lack of fuel (the plane had 10 tones of fuel, which is twice as much needed for the flight).
The Director General noted that the A-320 was in technically good working condition s before the flight. He also mentioned that the members of the crew were experienced pilots.
On 3 May the delegation led by the Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan, the co-chair of the Russian-Armenian Intergovernmental Commission, was dispatched to Sochi by a special flight. A team of rescuers from the Armenian Rescue Service left for Sochi on the same day as well.
On 3-4 May, Armavia Airlines delivered three special flights to Sochi for the relatives of the crash victims.
Late at night on 3 May, the rescuers had retrieved 46 bodies of the crash victims from the sea. The bodies were transported TO Yerevan by an air freighter IL-76 of the Emergency Services of the Russian Federation.
The "black box" flight recorders of Airbus A-320 crashed in the Black Sea not found yet.
The search for the flight recorders is currently under way with the support of French specialists.
Session of EUROCONTROL Board, the Supreme Body of the organization, took place in Brussels on 6 April 2006. Armenia attended the session as a member state for the first time.
ARTYOM MOVSESYAN, Director General of the General Department of Civil Aviation headed the delegation of the Republic of Armenia.
Armenia is the first CIS country, which joins EUROCONTROL as a member. Ukraine and Moldova are full members of the organization. Azerbaijan and Georgia have submitted their applications for membership of EUROCONTROL.
The membership of Armenia to EUROCONTROL will promote to the development of the aviation sector, and in particular to the compliance of the air navigation services to the European standards.
www.eurocontrol.int
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