AFP
Russia wants help from foreign countries in raising from the seabed the "black box" flight recorders from an Armenian aircraft that crashed into the Black Sea, Transport Minister Igor Levitin said Thursday."The ministry for emergency situations has asked the navy and foreign countries for their experience in the raising of objects from such a depth," Levitin told journalists.
A large part of the Armenian plane that crashed Thursday was located at a depth of about 680 meters (2,200 feet), and a signal that might be the plane's black box flight recorders was coming from the site, Levitin said. Russia's Black Sea fleet lacks equipment for retrieving the black boxes from such a depth, as does the Northern Fleet, Levitin said.
Retrieving the flight recorders is seen as essential to
establishing why the plane plunged into the sea near the resort town
of Sochi on its approach to a nearby airport.