Families plan rites from helicopter at crash site

RELIGIOUS rites for the Hong Kong victims of the Aeroflot crash may be held on helicopters flying above the site in Siberia once the investigation is completed.

Aeroflot's deputy general manager in Hong Kong, Teddy Chung Chi-kan, said his office had contacted 15 of the victims' families.

Nine of them, three Hong Kong, four mainland Chinese, one South Korean and one British relative, have asked to visit Moscow to identify the bodies.

The families of the five Taiwan victims are due to go to Moscow via Hong Kong next Wednesday, but Aeroflot declined to confirm if the Hong Kong victims' relatives would go on the same date.

Rescue workers have recovered 61 bodies from the wreckage so far, but 14 corpses are still buried under snow and twisted metal.

All 75 people on board the Airbus A310 died. It was on a flight from Moscow to Hong Kong when it crashed under mysterious circumstances near the Mongolian border.

Mr Chung said: ''We can arrange for the relatives to visit the site subject to the completion of work by the rescue team and government officials. But since that area is not accessible by normal transportation, it is possible that they can only go up to Novokunetsk, 100 kilometres from the site.'' However, Aeroflot's general manager, Vassili Tkachenko said helicopters could be arranged for relatives to reach the site after it was reopened.