113 Die in Black Sea Jetliner Crash
An Armenian passenger plane crashed in bad weather early today off Russia’s Black Sea coast as it was headed in for landing, killing all 113 people on board, emergency officials said.
A spokesman for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry told local news agencies that rescue workers had found empty lifejackets, baggage, body parts, pieces of the shattered jet and oil floating on the Black Sea at the site of the crash.
The empty lifejackets indicated that passengers had no time to put them on, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted an unidentified local official as saying.
Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said the plane was an Airbus 320. It vanished from radar screens at 2:15 a.m. just under four miles from the shore, and crashed after making a turn and heading toward the airport near the resort town of Sochi.
The ministry said the aircraft belonged to Armavia, the largest airline in Armenia, a former Soviet republic.
Heavy rain and poor visibility complicated the search for debris and survivors. Beltsov did not say whether authorities believed weather was a factor in the crash.
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