June 14, 2006 - 15:05 AMT
Crew to Blame for A-320 Crash, Specialists Consider
The faults of the crew have become the reason for the A-320 crash in the Black Sea, Moscovsky Komsomolets newspaper reports according to an anonymous source in the investigating committee. The decoding of the flight recorders showed that the pilots "have lost spatial orientation" in bad weather conditions. It was also ascertained that the pilots had taken a too big list when making the second turn by order of the flying control officer. These factors, specialists say, led to the catastrophe.

Earlier equipment breakdown or lack of fuel were presented as versions of the crash. The official results will be announced in several days. Now the specialists of the International Aviation Committee try to find "smooth" wordings to make the accusations less sharp.

To remind, on May 3 night Airbus-320 owned by Armavia national carrier crashed in the Black Sea 6 km away from Adler airport killing all of 113 people aboard, including 6 children and 8 crewmembers. Among them were 26 Russian citizens, one Ukrainian and one Georgian citizen, while the rest were Armenian citizens. The flight recorders were withdrawn from the seabed. The committee consisting of specialists from France, Armenia and Russia deal with their decoding, reported Lenta.ru.