Search Continues for “Crashed Aircraft’

The first day of a search for an allegedly crashed aircraft in upper Kodori Gorge has failed to produce any results, an Interior Ministry official said on August 25.

“Our second team is there on the ground to continue the search operation,” Shota Utiashvili, the chief of the analytical department of the Interior Ministry, who returned back from upper Kodori late on August 25, told Civil.Ge. “This [the focus of the search operations] is extremely difficult terrain and even a helicopter can hardly approach it.”

He also said it was not possible to officially confirm at this stage whether an aircraft really crashed or not.

“The only thing we can officially confirm at this point is that we fired warning shots at an intruder aircraft ,” Utiashvili added.

Georgia claims unidentified aircraft from Russia several times violated its airspace over Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia on August 21, 21 and 22. In the latest incident on August 22, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said, Interior Ministry personnel responded in accordance “to the established procedure and then fired warning shots.”

“On August 22, when Georgian airspace was violated, we fired warning shots; the overflight terminated after that,” Shota Khizanishvili, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said. “We call on Russia and the international community to jointly investigate the violation of Georgia”s airspace.”

The Russian side has dismissed Georgia”s allegation as “yet another provocation.”

The Abkhaz side, however, added a new twist to the story by claiming later on August 25 that an unidentified aircraft had crashed in upper Kodori Gorge on August 22. Sokhumi claims it was a Georgian aircraft.

The Chief-of-Staff of the breakaway region’s armed forces, Anatoly Zaitsev, told reporters in Sokhumi on August 25 that he himself had  witnessed the aircraft flying from the Black Sea into Abkhaz territory.

“It was losing altitude; a smoke trail was also seen,” Zaitsev said. “Our observation post in the [lower] Kodori Gorge also observed an overflight” and then saw billowing black smoke rising from the ground.

Interfax news agency quoted him as saying that it could have been a U.S. aircraft. Zaitsev, however, later denied he had said so.

The Abkhaz foreign minister, Sergey Shamba, said that Abkhaz personnel on the observation post in lower Kodori Gorge had seen the aircraft, “then they observed a blast and heard an explosion.”

The Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, said later on August 25, that the Abkhaz side, which combed the lower Kodori Gorge, had found no wreakage.

News about the incident first broke late on August 24 when Tbilisi-based Rustavi 2 TV reported that a Russian aircraft had been shot down by Georgian forces over the upper Kodori Gorge.

No aircraft wreakage has been found because of the remoteness of the gorge, early reports said. Witnesses told Rustavi 2 TV via phone that they had seen black smoke coming from the crash site.

Abkhaz forces were holding large scale military maneuvers, involving at least two army helicopters and two aircraft, near the Kodori Gorge at the time.

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