The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said in the immediate aftermath of the crash that stormy weather was the most likely cause of the crash of Armavia Airlines' A-320, though other officials indicated that human error was still being considered.
However, Grigory Airapetyan, in charge of Armavia's A-320 Airbus fleet, was skeptical of this theory.
"Forty-year-old Grigory Grigoryan, the pilot of the Airbus A-320 that crashed near Sochi, was one of the most experienced on the company's staff," he said.
Grigoryan had 5,700 hours of pilot flight time to his credit, including 1,200 hours flying an Airbus, and was one of the company's first pilots to complete a training program run by the Swedish air carrier SAS in Stockholm, Airapetyan said.
He expressed doubt that human error might have caused the crash.
"Judging from the evidence available now, this is highly unlikely."
