RFE/RL reports that controversy and many unanswered questions still surround the crash of an Armavia A-320 as it approached Sochi in May. As many people here suspected, the reason for the tragedy that resulted in 113 deaths has been given as pilot error by Russian investigators. However, while there are still many rumors circulating here that have been dismissed by the Government as well as the owner of Armavia, the authorities in Yerevan are also reportedly unhappy with the outcome of the investigation.

Citing their findings , Russia’s Transport Minister Igor Levitin said in July that the crew of the Armenian Airbus A-320 lost control of the plane as they made a second attempt to land at the Black Sea city of Sochi. This conclusion was endorsed by the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee (ICA) of the Commonwealth of Independent States which also investigated the deadliest air disaster in Armenia’s history.

The Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Department essentially accepted this verdict at the time. At the same time, its director Artyom Movsisian said that although the “human factor” apparently played a role in the crash, Yerevan believes that there are still some key unanswered questions about its causes.

It emerged on Wednesday that Movsisian’s department has presented the ICA with a six-page document that questions some of the conclusions drawn by the Russian investigators. In particular, the Armenian side complained that the Russians failed to take note of Sochi airport’s alleged failure to “detect dangerous weather conditions” that are thought to have prevented the plane belonging to the national airline Armavia from landing safely on first attempt.

Armavia’s owner Mikhail Baghdasarian insists that the A-320 would have avoided the crash had it not received a last-minute order to veer away from the airport’s runway and make a second approach. Baghdasarov, who is a Russian citizen of Armenian descent, has rejected the ICA verdict and demanded an “independent inquiry.”

Interestingly, rumors that I posted a few weeks after the crash are also resurfacing in Armenia. According to those rumors, an incident on board the plane might have contributed or even caused the crash.

The Civil Aviation Department also took issue with the investigators’ implicit claims that Armavia had failed to properly train its pilots and assess their professional level. It further urged them to drop from their preliminary conclusions an assertion that moments before the crash the A-320 crew found themselves in a “tense psycho-emotional situation” due to unspecified “imperative demands to land at Sochi.”

According to rumors cited by the Armenian press, those demands were made by some wealthy and influential passengers of the doomed flight. There have also been allegations that a gunfight may have broken out between crime figures that were allegedly among the victims of the crash. The Armenian government and Armavia have dismissed the claims.

A1 Plus also carries news of these allegations which really have surfaced in the Armenian media and from political forces in opposition to the Government in the country. Unfortunately, given the nature of both the media and the political field here it’s hard to know whether to even consider them as being worth looking into or not. For example, Aram Karapetyan makes some spectacular claims.

Aram Karapetyan himself has his sources in the National Security Service. According to his sources, the first telegram received by the Armenian Aviation Service immediately after the crash was the following, “It disappeared from the radar screen”. One question to Aghvan Hovsepyan is: “Did they pay attention to the fact that this expression is used when the plane explodes?”

The specialists with whom Mr. Karapetyan talked claimed that the content of the telegram does not exclude the possibility of explosion.

The second question: Did the criminal grouping in the plane try to force the pilots to make a landing in Sochi and not to return to Yerevan? Was the pilot beaten up? Aghvan Hovsepyan also has to answer if there was much money, gold and precious stones on board. He must also answer why the plane did not return to Yerevan when the Sochi dispatcher warned that it was impossible to land. Who forced the pilot not to obey the warning of the dispatcher?

Taken in isolation this all sounds rather crazy, but it has to be said that to lose one plane is a tragedy, but for fire to destroy two more just days after seems just a little unlucky. Karapetyan is not the only one making such allegations. Recently a veteran pilot also alleged that the reason for the crash was an explosion on board and in response Armavia have threatened to sue him.

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. The airline Armavia has no information to confirm the version about an explosion in the plane A-320 that crushed during a Yerevan-Sochi flight in May. NT was informed from Armavia’s press service that Armenia has no such facts. According to the same course, if such facts are available, they should be provided to the prosecutor’s office, and if it turnes out that these facts are unfounded, Armavia may hold those spreading such rumors criminally responsible. To recap, at a conference on October 19, Vladimir Poghosian, former pilot of the liquidated airline Armenian Airways, said that the crashed plane A-320 was not uncontrollable and the real cause of the crash was an explosion. The pilot accused the persons responsible for the flight organization, including the flight safety units of Zvartnots Airport and Armavia.

The Russian Regnum News Agency also covered Poghosyan’s claims and especially his allegations that the explosion was caused by a “showdown” on board. Regnum also covered those claims as well.

He put the blame for the A320 crash on management of Armavia and Zvartnots Airport, who gave permission for the plane to depart for Sochi, while a criminal showdown started in the airport before the departure and continued onboard. “I do not comprehend how the company and airport security services could allow those people to get onboard, knowing they could continue the showdown during the flight. Such negligence resulted in a tragedy. Four relatives of the crash victims, Russian citizens, say their relatives called them a few seconds before the crash and said there was a shootout onboard. Besides, belongings with holes from bullets were found in the water on the spot,” he said asking why such experienced pilots, who were the crew of the crashed A320, being aware of the risk of landing in Adler Airport, which is not equipped for bad weather conditions, nevertheless made such an attempt. “The thing is, very important persons were aboard, who made the crew to attempt landing. I can account for my words. Moreover, our pilots proposed to the parliament to establish a group to investigate causes of the crash, and we could have proved verity of our words,” the pilot said, adding that commission was never established under pressure of some certain forces.

And as if this wasn’t sounding the stuff of many a good action movie, the Armenian press also recently tied in the alleged appearance of Russian crime figure Yaponchik in Armenia to the crash.

“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” continues to discuss the reported visit to Armenia by Vyacheslav Ivankov, a reputed Russian crime figure nicknamed “Yaponchik.” The paper claims that among the passengers of the Armenian Airbus A-320 that crashed last May were close friends of Ivankov’s who carried a large amount of cash belonging to the Russian mafia. “In order to solve that issue, Yaponchik met with Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian,” it says.

To be honest, it all sounds fantastic, but one thing I’ve learned in eight years of being here in Armenia is that almost anything is possible. Unfortunately, that’s why we’ll probably never get to know the full reason for the Armavia crash — whatever it was.