Deep-water Search Planned In Black Sea, To Locate And Lift Wrecked Tu-154's Flight Data Recorders

At its morning session today, the ad hoc commission set up to investigate the circumstances of the TU-154 plane's Oct. 4 crash decided to conduct a deep-water search in the hope of locating and lifting the wrecked plane's flight data recorders, said Tatyana Anodina, Chairwoman of the Interdepartmental Aviation Committee. In her opinion, this is the right decision. According to Anodina, the research ship Academician Golitsin, which has arrived at the site of the TU-154 crash, will install necessary equipment and make preparations for underwater work. Members of the investigating commission believe that these measures will contribute to the success of the planned seep-water search. They stressed that the Gazprom-owned research ship has all advanced equipment required for such work, including a scanning sonar and an unmanned deep-water vehicle known as Triton. The crew of the Academician Golitsin is comprised of 28 Russian and 22 foreign specialists. These latter will be servicing and operating the Triton vehicle. Saturday morning, rescuers resumed helicopter flights on search mission, with one of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's MI-8 helicopters supposed to bring five divers of the Sochi search-and-rescue unit along to the crash site.