Armenian airliner crashes near S Russia - reports

MOSCOW, May 3 (Reuters) An Armenian Airlines aircraft carrying about 100 people on a flight from Yerevan to the Russian seaside resort of Sochi has crashed into the Black Sea, Russian media reported today.

RIA news agency said the emergencies ministry had sent an amphibious plane to the scene of the crash, and that fragments of the plane were visible on the surface of the sea.

Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov was quoted as saying the plane was an Airbus 320 and had vanished from radar screens at (0345 IST) near Sochi, a Russian resort near the Georgian border.

He said the plane was carrying at least five children, and that difficult weather conditions were complicating the search for survivors.

REUTERS DKS RN0639