Now Attempting To Recover Flight Recorders

Diving crews in the Black Sea off the coast of the Russian resort town of Sochi say they have located the fuselage of the Armavia A320 (file photos of type, below) that went down Tuesday night, killing all 113 people onboard. Russian news services report crews are now focused locating the aircraft's flight data recorders.

While the official cause of the accident has not been determined, officials are pointing to the weather in the area when the airliner went down. Heavy rain, low cloud cover, and vicious crosswinds were reported at the time the A320 crashed.

The Interfax news service quoted the Russian air control agency as saying the plane's crew had not declared any emergency prior to the accident... which occurred as the airliner was on its third approach to land at the Adler airport. Two previous attempts by the airliner's flight crew to land at Adler had been waved off, reportedly due to weather.

Terrorism has been all-but-ruled-out as a possible factor... although, in a curious development, the bodies of three victims recovered have been identified as Armenian citizens NOT listed on the airliner's passenger manifest. Meanwhile, search crews continue to recover bodies from the wreckage... and the airline has called in grief councilors for the families of the victims.

FMI: www.armania.ru, www.u8.am