No survivors are being reported from the crash of an Armavia Airbus A320 off Russia’s Black Sea coast.
A spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said at a press briefing that wreckage and bodies have been recovered several kilometres from the coastline near the southern Russian resort town of Sochi. He indicated that no survivors are expected to be found.
The spokesman says several major wreckage pieces are in water around 60m deep, although reports quote other officials as saying wreckage is spread over a wide area and in some areas in water as deep as 300m.
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Latest reports quoting Russian officials say there were 113 people on board the aircraft, rather than 100 as earlier reported, including eight members of the crew, although the figure has changed several times over the past few hours.
The aircraft, operated by Armenia’s Armavia, was headed for Adler airport, which serves Sochi, from Yerevan when it disappeared from radar screens, reportedly at around 02:15 today. Russian officials are quoted as saying weather was poor at the time of the crash and heavy rain was falling. Some reports say the aircraft was on a second landing attempt when it crashed.
Airbus has confirmed the identity of the aircraft as an 11-year old example owned by PK Airfinance.
The aircraft, a CFM International CFM56-powered example registered EK-32009, had been in the Armenian carrier’s fleet for two years.
It had been operating Armavia flight RNV967 between the Armenian capital
Airbus data states that the jet had accumulated over 28,200hrs across some 14,400 cycles.
While the airframer says that the crash apparently occurred in poor weather, it adds: “The investigation remains the entire responsibility of the relevant authorities and it would be inappropriate for Airbus to enter into any form of speculation into the cause of the accident.”
Airbus says that it will offer technical support to any inquiry, alongside the French air accident investigation agency Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses, and is dispatching a team of six to the accident site.
Source: Flight International
