Father of an Ufa citizen who died over Lake Constance: “The pain cannot subside, it is always with me. Plane crash over Lake Constance: causes, investigation, consequences
In 2002, in a plane crash over lake constance Vitaliy Kaloev lost his family. Due to an error by an employee of the Skyguide air traffic control company, 71 people died, including Kaloev's wife and two children. After 478 days, he killed air traffic controller Peter Nielsen and spent the next four years in a Swiss prison. 13 years later, a film was made about those events in the United States with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. This is a drama about a man whose life suddenly collapsed. The prototype of the hero Schwarzenegger rarely communicates with journalists, but Vitaly Kaloev found the time to meet with a correspondent from Lenta.ru and talk about his fate.
Now he has more free time. He recently celebrated his sixtieth birthday and retired. For eight years he worked as Deputy Minister of Construction of North Ossetia. He was appointed to this post shortly after his early release from a Swiss prison.
“Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev, whose fate is known on all continents of the globe, was awarded the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia”,- reports the website of the Ministry of Construction and Architecture of the Republic. - On his 60th birthday, he received this the highest award from the hands of Boris Borisovich Dzhanaev, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.
News from Hollywood and Vladikavkaz came in the second half of January with a difference of less than two weeks. The film is based on real events: the plane crash in July 2002 and what happened 478 days later",- indicates the profile site imdb.com. Vitaly's wife Svetlana and their children, eleven-year-old Konstantin and four-year-old Diana, died in a plane crash. All of them flew to the head of the family in Spain, where Kaloev designed houses. And on February 22, 2004, his attempt to talk to an employee of the Skyguide air traffic control company, Peter Nielsen, ended in the murder of the dispatcher on the threshold of his own house in the Swiss town of Kloten: twelve strokes with a penknife.
Computer reconstruction of the collision. Image: Wikipedia “I knocked. Nielsen is out- Kaloev told reporters of Komsomolskaya Pravda in March 2005. — I first gestured to him to invite me into the house. But he slammed the door. I called again and said to him: Ich bin Russland. I remember these words from school. He said nothing. I took out photographs of the bodies of my children. I wanted him to look at them. But he pushed my hand away and sharply gestured for me to get out ... Like a dog: get out. Well, I kept silent, the insult took me. Even my eyes filled with tears. I extended my hand to him with the photographs for the second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped my hand, and the pictures flew. And it started there."
Later, Skyguide's fault in the plane crash was recognized by the court, several of Nielsen's colleagues received suspended sentences. Kaloev was sentenced to eight years, but released early in November 2008.
In Vladikavkaz, Deputy Minister Kaloev led federal and international projects: the television tower on Lysa Gora - beautiful, with a cable car, a revolving observation deck and a restaurant - and the Valery Gergiev Caucasian Music and Cultural Center, designed in the workshop of Norman Foster. Both objects have gone through all the formalities - it remains to wait for funding. The tower, apparently, is more needed: the current television tower in North Ossetia is about half a century old, the state corresponds. But the center is more unusual: several halls, an amphitheater, a school for gifted children. “A technically very complex project - linear calculations, non-linear calculations, each element separately and the entire structure as a whole”,- evaluates the work of Foster's colleagues, the retired deputy minister.
Vitaliy Kaloev speaks more modestly and harshly about personal achievements: “I think that I lived my life in vain: I could not save my family. What depended on me is the second question. Vitaly avoids detailed judgments about what does not depend on him. The film "478" is no exception. Arnold Schwarzenegger Kaloev, in principle, appreciates for the role of "big good men." At the same time, the prototype is sure that Schwarzenegger (Victor in the film) will play what is written in the script, from which Vitaly does not expect anything good. “If it was at the household level - one question. But then Hollywood, politics, ideology, relations with Russia” he says.
The main thing that Vitaly asks for is that there is no need to show that he fled somewhere, as in a European film based on the same plot. “He came openly, left openly, did not hide from anyone. Everything is in the case file, everything is reflected.
The authors of the Hollywood film assure that the role of Vitaly Schwarzenegger will reveal itself in a new way - not like " last Hero action", but as a purely dramatic artist. Actually, if you follow real events, it will not work out differently. “At ten in the morning I was at the scene of the tragedy, Kaloev testifies. — I saw all these bodies - I froze in tetanus, I could not move. A village near Überlingen, there was a headquarters at the school. And nearby at the crossroads, as it turned out later, my son fell. Until now, I can’t forgive myself that I drove by and didn’t feel anything, didn’t recognize him. ”
To the question “maybe you need to forgive yourself more?” there is no direct answer. There is a reflection on what brought Vitaly Kaloev fame "on all continents of the globe": “If a person went for something for the sake of relatives and friends, then you can’t regret it later. And you can't feel sorry for yourself. If you feel sorry for yourself for half a second, you will go down, you will go down. Especially when you are sitting: there is nowhere to hurry, there is no communication, all sorts of thoughts come into your head - and such, and such, and such. God forbid you feel sorry for yourself." About the family of Peter Nielsen, where three children remained, Vitaly said eight years ago: “His children grow up healthy, cheerful, his wife is happy with her children, his parents are happy with their grandchildren. And who am I to rejoice?"
It seems that most of all Kaloev regrets the German volunteers and policemen from the summer of 2002: “My instinct has sharpened to the point that I began to understand what the Germans were talking about among themselves, not knowing the language. I wanted to participate in search operations - they tried to send me away, it did not work out. They gave us a section further away, where there were no bodies. I found some things, the wreckage of the plane. I understood then, and I understand now, that they were right. They really couldn’t gather the required number of police officers on time - who was there, half was taken away: who fainted, who else.
The Germans, according to Vitaly, "generally very sincere people, simple". “I hinted that I would like to put up a monument at the place where my girl fell, - instantly one german woman began to help, started fundraising, Kaloev says. And then back to the days of searching: “I put my hands on the ground - I tried to understand where the soul remained: in this place, in the ground - or flew away somewhere. He waved his hands - some roughness. He began to get out - glass beads that were on her neck. I began to collect, then showed people. Later, one architect made a common monument there - with a broken string of beads.
Vitaliy Kaloev is trying to remember everyone who helped him. It turns out not quite: “A lot of guys from everywhere gave money, for example, to my older brother Yuri - so that he would come to Switzerland once again, visit me”. For two years, every month they sent “a hundred local money in an envelope, for cigarettes” to Kaloev’s cell; on the envelope is the letter W, the secret of which the grateful addressee still wants to know. Special thanks - of course, to Taimuraz Mamsurov, the head of North Ossetia at that time: “Assigned to the ministry here, helped there. Not to be afraid to come, as it was believed, to a criminal, a murderer for trial in Zurich, in order to support, for a leader of such a rank, it was worth a lot. Special thanks to Aman Tuleev, Governor of the Kemerovo Region: “He just gave money three or four times, part of his salary. And in Moscow he also gave me a little dressing up.
And letters, recalls Kaloev, came from everywhere - from Russia, Europe, Canada and Australia. “Even from Switzerland itself, I received two letters: the authors apologized to me very much for what happened. When they told me that I could take 15 kilograms with me. I sorted through the letters, put away the envelopes - all the same, one mail was more than twenty kilos. They looked, they said: “Okay, take both mail and things.”
The crash site of the Tu-154M aircraft. Photo: Reuters “The Swiss deported Kaloev quietly and imperceptibly. The Russian side should have acted the same way. Instead, it's an ugly anti-legal show."- assessed the solemn meeting of the Swiss prisoner in Domodedovo, retired police major general Vladimir Ovchinsky, now adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Opponents of the glorification of Kaloev were especially protested by the statement of the Nashi movement: “Kaloev turned out to be ... a man with a capital letter. And he was punished and humiliated for the whole country ... If there were at least a little more people like Kaloev, the attitude towards Russia would be completely different. Worldwide".
“I arrived, I did not expect that I would be so warmly welcomed in Moscow. Maybe it was superfluous - but in any case, it's nice, ” says Vitaly Kaloev eight years later.
“You can’t learn to live after this, he assures when it comes to relatives of those killed in a plane crash over Sinai. — The pain may have dulled a little - but it does not go away. You can drive yourself to work, you have to work - a person is distracted at work: you work, you solve people's problems ... But there is no recipe. I still haven't recovered. But you don't have to go down. If you need to cry, cry, but it’s better to be alone: no one saw me with tears, I didn’t show them anywhere. Maybe on the very first day. We must live with the fate that is intended. Live and help people.
Reception on personal matters with Deputy Minister Kaloev, of course, practically did not stop for all eight years: a national tradition plus the status of a famous fellow countryman. “Ask for money for medicines, building materials for repairs, for someone to arrange a high-tech operation,- lists Vitaly. — After all, I know both ministers-colleagues and their deputies - you turn to them. It didn't always work, but something did. Forty or fifty percent." The least refused schools, where they came for new windows or for overhaul. Or at all for a lecture from the Deputy Minister - "for high school students, about what principles should be in a person's life."
In a separate line - calls to Kaloev from the colonies. “How they got my phone number, I don’t know. “Can you send cigarettes?” Of course I will. There was a man by the name of Kuznetsov, he knocked down an Uzbek with one blow in St. Petersburg, when he began to pester his son. They organized a teleconference, I spoke in his support.”
Now most of all Vitaly wants to be left alone: “I want to live as a private person - everything, I don’t even go to work”. First, the heart: bypass. Secondly, Vitaly got married last year, thirteen years after the tragedy. The only thing he would like “from the public” is to come to Moscow on Victory Day, join the “Immortal Regiment” with a portrait of his father: Konstantin Kaloev, artilleryman.
“I was provoked a lot on the topic of how, for example, Bashkiria differs, where most of the dead on that plane come from, from Ossetia, Ossetia - from central Russia, - says Vitaly. - They meant, of course, to bring them to talk about blood feuds and the like. I always answered this way: absolutely no different, because we are all Russians. A person who loves his family, his children, will do anything for them. There are many like me in Russia. If I hadn’t gone and gone through this path to the end - I just wanted to talk to him, accept an apology - then after death I would not have a place next to my family. I wouldn't want to be buried next to them. I wouldn't deserve it. And for them, we are all Russians anyway. Incomprehensible, terrible Russians.
// Photo: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt
A plane crash that occurred in 2002 near the German city of Überlingen shocked the world. Then, due to the negligence of the Swiss dispatcher Peter Nielsen, 71 people died. The collision occurred at 21:35, but according to experts, it could have been prevented if airport workers had informed the pilots about the danger in time.
The passenger liner was heading to Spain, and mostly children flew on that flight, the best students of Ufa schools, who were awarded free trips to Europe for academic success.
Boeing crashed into the fuselage passenger aircraft, due to which it fell apart into four parts right in the air. The pilots of the cargo ship lost control, after which the liner crashed seven kilometers from the Russian TU-154.
Lengthy legal proceedings did not bring results: the dispatcher, through whose fault the tragedy occurred, refused to take responsibility. No apologies or condolences were offered to the families of the victims. At that moment, Vitaly Kaloev, an architect from Russia, who lost his entire family in a plane crash, decided to sort out the situation. His wife and two children flew on the fateful Bashkir Airlines flight to visit him in Spain.
Kaloev came to the house of Peter Nielsen, after which he inflicted 12 stab wounds on him. The dispatcher could not be saved, and the inconsolable father himself went to prison. He was released two years later for good behavior.
The final verdict in this case was delivered only in 2007. The court found four Skyguide managers guilty of causing death by negligence. Three more employees of the Swiss firm were given a verdict, sentencing them to a suspended sentence. The families of the victims were paid monetary compensation.
Vitaliy Kaloev returned to North Ossetia immediately after his release. Xenia Kaspari, who wrote the book "Collision" dedicated to that tragic history, explained why the inconsolable father committed the crime.
“He was at the crash site when the search operations had just begun. He, seeing fragments of bodies, various testimonies of broken lives, understood and imagined what kind of death his children died, ”says Kaspari.
In 2017, the film "Consequences" was released, based on tragic history Vitaly Kaloev. main role Arnold Schwarzenegger played in the film. Hollywood actor so imbued with a story based on real events that he agreed to participate in the filming for a minimum fee.
Valery Postnikov, executive director of the Society of Independent Air Accident Investigators, said the crash could have been prevented. “In this situation, both dispatchers and our pilots are to blame. This is a combination of shortcomings, mistakes, misunderstanding in the work of dispatchers and crew. But of course, the fact that there was only one operator behind the terminals, that the entire system was turned off, is absolutely unacceptable, ”summed up Postnikov in his commentary for the RT portal.
"I knocked. Nielsen came out. At first I gestured to him to invite me into the house. But he slammed the door. I called again and said to him:" Ikh bin russland "(" I am Russia "). I remember these words from school "He didn't say anything. I took out photographs of the bodies of my children. I wanted him to look at them. But he pushed my hand away and sharply gestured for me to get out ... Like a dog: get out. Well, I said nothing. You see, resentment took me. Even my eyes filled with tears. I held out my hand to him with the photographs for the second time and said in Spanish: "Look!" ... Probably," said Vitaliy Kaloev, adding that he does not remember how he left the air traffic controller's house.
He claims that he came to the air traffic controller's house in order to get him to apologize for his tragic mistake: "I decided to make him repent. I wanted to show him photos of my murdered family, and then go with him to Skyguide and call the television so that they - Nielsen and Rossier (the head of the company) - apologize to me in front of the camera. This wish of mine was no secret to anyone."
The Russian says that he repeatedly asked the director of the Swiss company to arrange a meeting with Nielsen, but he refused: “Yes, in 2003 I asked Skyguide to show me Nielsen, and they hid him. And then I received a fax letter. Skyguide asked, to give up my dead family: received compensation and signed papers on which he agreed that the firm would no longer be pursued. It angered me. I called them and said that I would like to meet with Nielsen and discuss these issues. He agreed at first, and then refused.
Kaloev admits that he does not regret the dispatcher’s death: “How should I feel sorry for him? You see, it didn’t make me feel better that he died. My children didn’t return ...” While in prison, he is unable to speak Russian, but really suffers only because he cannot visit the grave of his loved ones.
A native of North Ossetia, suspected in the murder, says that he understands better than anyone else what the relatives of the victims of the Beslan tragedy are now: "No one understands the Beslanovites better than me. I don't know how they should live on." “I watched it on TV and sent a telegram of condolences to the President of North Ossetia... And I wrote what bastards the Swiss are, they told me: “You should do it!” And the local doctor said: “It should be easier for you. Because there are already many like you ... "- says Kaloev.
The Russian said that, like many residents of Beslan, he still sees no point in later life: "While I have plans - to live to see the court. But I'm not afraid of him. And I don't recognize it. I told them so: the Swiss court means nothing to me. For me, the court of my children is higher. If they could, they would say that I really loved them, that I did not leave them, did not allow them to disappear without a trace.
In Germany, it happened on July 2, 2002 - due to an error by the dispatcher and the crew of the Russian aircraft, a cargo Boeing 757 and Tu-154 of Bashkir Airlines collided. On board the latter were 69 people. All of them, including Kaloev's wife, son and daughter, died.
Numerous safety violations committed by Skyguide, after two years, still forced the Swiss. Last summer, after Nielsen's death, they offered to pay $150,000 for each victim, but this move only angered the relatives.
15 years ago, on the night of July 1-2, 2002, two planes collided in the sky over Lake Constance as a result of the negligence of a Swiss air traffic controller - a passenger airliner of Bashkir Airlines and a cargo Boeing. As a result of the disaster, 71 people died, including 52 children. Finding no justice in court Russian architect Vitaliy Kaloev dealt with an employee of a Swiss company, whom he considered guilty of the death of his family. What actually led to the tragedy: a combination of circumstances or errors of the crew and ground services, - RT understood.
The Bashkir Airlines aircraft was operating a charter flight from Moscow to Barcelona. Most of the Tu-154 passengers were children who were heading to Spain for a holiday. The Committee of the Republic of Bashkortostan for UNESCO provided them with vouchers as a reward for high academic achievements. A cargo Boeing 757-200PF was flying DHX 611 from Bahrain to Brussels (Belgium) with an intermediate stop in Bergamo (Italy). As a result of the collision, 71 people died: crew members of both aircraft and all passengers of the Tu-154.
fatal seconds
The Russian plane took off from Moscow at 18:48, the cargo liner from Bergamo at 21:06.
At the time of the crash, both aircraft were over the territory of Germany, but the movement of liners in the sky was controlled by controllers from the private Swiss company Skyguide. On the night of the tragedy, two air traffic controllers were on duty in Zurich. A few minutes before the collision of the planes, one of the operators went on a break. Therefore, 34-year-old dispatcher Peter Nielsen had to work simultaneously at two consoles.
As it turned out during the investigation, part of the equipment of the control room - the main equipment for telephone communication and automatic notification of personnel about the dangerous approach of the liners - was turned off. This was the cause of the tragedy: Nielsen signaled the Russian pilots to descend too late.
- Swiss air traffic controllers control flights at Zurich airport on July 2, 2002.
- Reuters
Two aircraft were moving perpendicular to each other at the same flight level FL360. Less than a minute remained before their collision, when the controller noticed a dangerous approach. He gave the command to the Russian ship to descend, and the pilots immediately began to follow his instructions. But at that moment, the automatic proximity warning system (TCAS) went off in the cockpits of both aircraft. Automation gave the command passenger liner immediately climb, and the cargo - to decrease. However, the Russian pilots continued to follow the instructions of the dispatcher.
But the cargo side was also descending, following the commands of TCAS. The pilots reported this to Nielsen, but he did not hear it.
In the last seconds before the tragedy, the crews noticed each other and tried to avoid the disaster, but it was too late. At 9:35 pm Flights 2937 and 611 collided almost at a right angle at an altitude of 10,634 meters.
Boeing crashed into the fuselage of a passenger Tu-154. The impact broke the plane into four pieces. The cargo liner lost control and fell to the ground 7 km from the Russian Tu-154.
Judgment of Father and Husband
By July 2002, Russian architect Vitaly Kaloev had been working in Spain for two years. He finished the object near Barcelona, handed it over to the customer and was waiting for the family he had not seen for nine months. His wife and children were already in Moscow by that time, but there was a problem with buying tickets. And then she was offered "burning" - on the same flight of Bashkir Airlines.
Upon learning of the incident, Vitaliy Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and then to Überlingen, where the disaster occurred.
No one took responsibility for what happened then - no one asked for forgiveness from the inconsolable parents. The courts dragged on for years and did not lead to any result. The controller, who allowed the two planes to collide, also refused to admit his guilt.
- Vitaliy Kaloev approaches the grave of his family
A year and a half after the tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev decided to meet with Peter Nielsen. He learned his address and came to his house. Kaloev did not speak German, so when Nielsen opened the door, he handed him photographs of the bodies of his children, and uttered only one word in Spanish: "Look." But instead of apologizing, Nielsen hit him on the arm, knocking out the photos. What happened next, Vitaly Kaloev, according to him, does not remember - tears splashed from his eyes, consciousness turned off. Investigators later counted 12 stab wounds on Nielsen's body.
The Swiss court found Vitaly Kaloev guilty of murder and sentenced him to eight years in prison, but two years later the man was released for good behavior, and he returned to Ossetia.
This story received a wide response. Discussing what happened, the society was divided into two camps: those who understand why a family man, a person who had never violated the law before, could do this, and those who condemn Kaloev's act.
Xenia Kaspari is the author of the book Collision. The frank story of Vitaly Kaloev ”- in an interview with RT, she said that she spent a sufficient amount of time with Vitaly Kaloev and saw in him a person“ very intelligent, kind, adequate and educated.
Kaspari noted that Kaloev, unlike other relatives of the victims, saw with his own eyes the place of the tragedy and the bodies of his relatives. Because of this, it was psychologically harder for him than for the others.
- Ksenia Kaspari is the author of a book about Kaloev
- Publishing house "Eksmo"
“The relatives of the dead children flew in, laid wreaths, passed DNA tests, flew away and received sealed zinc coffins. And Kaloev, although he did not directly participate in the search, but on the second day he was shown photographs of bodies already found, and in one of the first pictures he saw his daughter. She was found among the first, she fell into a tree and looked almost intact. He identified her, ”Kaspari told RT.
“He was at the crash site when the search operations had just begun. He, seeing fragments of bodies, various testimonies of broken lives, understood and imagined what kind of death his children died, ”says Ksenia Kaspari.
Released in 2017 american film"Consequences", the plot of which was based on real story Ossetian architect. The role of Vitaly Kaloev was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In a conversation with RT, Ksenia Kaspari mentioned that the disaster over Lake Constance was preceded by whole line random circumstances.
The best schoolchildren from Ufa flew to Spain for their holidays through the capital. But at first they had problems with visas, then the children were mistakenly taken to Sheremetyevo Airport, although the flight was from Domodedovo. The plane took off without them. Then a group of schoolchildren was allocated a new flight, but when the liner had already rolled out onto the runway, it turned out that no food had been loaded on board. I had to go back to the airport and spend some more time loading food containers.
At the same time, Kaloev's wife and children, who also had tickets for the fatal flight, were late for boarding, but they were registered anyway.
“As if some unknown hand led to the tragedy. A few seconds were not enough to separate the planes - the minutes that it took for all these details turned out to be fateful, ”said Kaspari.
Looking for the culprit
For 15 years, both in Germany, on whose territory the disaster occurred, and in Switzerland, where Skyguide is based, and in Spain, the destination of the Russian liner, many trials have taken place in the case of a plane crash over Lake Constance.
There were many questions both to the dispatching company and to the German side, which did not have the right to entrust a private Swiss company to manage the flight. But representatives of Skyguide immediately after the tragedy said that the fault lay with the Russian pilots, who allegedly did not understand the instructions of the flight center operators, which is why the collision occurred.
Nevertheless, in 2004, Germany published a document with the results of the investigation, where it was concluded that Swiss air traffic controllers were to blame for the Tu-154 collision with Boeing. Skyguide was forced to admit guilt, and two years after the tragedy, the director of the dispatch company apologized to the families of the victims.
- Reuters
The final verdict against eight Skyguide employees was issued in 2007. Four managers were found guilty of causing death by negligence, three were given suspended sentences, and one was fined. Four more defendants were acquitted.
The dispatching company paid monetary compensations to the families of the victims, the amount of which was not announced. However, in addition to claims against Skyguide, relatives filed lawsuits against two American companies that were responsible for automated system safety of TCAS aircraft.
The Executive Director of the Society of Independent Investigators of Aviation Accidents, Valery Postnikov, in an interview with RT, emphasized that it was wrong to blame one person for aviation accidents.
“There are no cases in aviation when it is possible to unequivocally answer the question: “Who is to blame?” A tragedy is always preceded by a variety of reasons - a whole series of events and people, ”says Postnikov.
The interlocutor of RT noted that the whole system is built on the relationship of instrumental and human factors, which should not allow a disaster to occur. At the same time, he added that the collision of aircraft in the sky is one of the most rare events occurring in aviation.
In an interview with RT, Postnikov said that in the crash of planes over Lake Constance "you can't put all the blame on one dispatcher."
“In this situation, both dispatchers and our pilots are to blame. This is a combination of shortcomings, mistakes, misunderstanding in the work of dispatchers and crew. But of course, the fact that there was only one operator behind the terminals, that the entire system was turned off, is absolutely unacceptable,” the expert concluded.
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On the night of July 1-2, 2002, one of the largest aviation accidents in human history occurred in the sky over Lake Constance in Germany, killing 71 people, including 52 children.
On July 1, 2002, a Tu-154 aircraft of Bashkir Airlines took off from Moscow to Barcelona. On board the aircraft, in addition to 12 crew members, there were 57 passengers, 52 of whom were children. Most of the children flew to Spain on vacation at the expense of the republican budget of Bashkortostan. The trip was organized as an incentive for the best students and winners of student Olympiads.
The second flight, a Boeing 757, a DHL truck, flew from Bahrain to Brussels. Only two crew members were on board.
clash
It so happened that the private Swiss company Skyguide, whose dispatch center was located in Zurich, was engaged in air travel in that place. Although two controllers were on duty that night, shortly before the accident, one of the bottoms retired for a break. Only one dispatcher remained on duty, Peter Nielsen, as well as his assistant. Together they were forced to work with two terminals at once.
For some reason, some of the equipment in the control room was turned off, so Nielsen noticed the two planes dangerously close to each other too late and apparently succumbed to panic. Less than a minute remained before the alleged collision, and the dispatcher urgently gave the command to the Tu-154 crew to start descending.
By that time, Russian pilots themselves had noticed the second aircraft and began to maneuver immediately after receiving the appropriate command. At the same time, the dangerous approach system simultaneously began to inform the crew of the need, on the contrary, to gain altitude.
The dispatcher once again misinformed the pilots, saying that the second plane was not to the left, but to the right of the Russian side. Having no reason to doubt the veracity of the dispatcher's words, the Tu-154 crew decided that we are talking about the third aircraft, invisible on their screens, and continued to follow the instructions of the controller, ignoring the messages of the dangerous approach system.
Inconsistency
At the same time, a similar system on the cargo board advised the crew to lower their altitude, which they immediately began to do, informing the dispatcher about it. Since the two planes contacted the controller at the same time, the latter was unable to receive both messages and did not know that the second plane was also descending.
Literally a few seconds before the collision, the pilots of the aircraft realized that the crash could not be avoided, and rejected the controls to the limit. This was no longer enough, and the planes collided almost at right angles.
Upon impact, the Boeing's tail stabilizer broke the Tu's fuselage into two pieces. In the fall, the Russian plane broke into four more pieces, all of which fell in the Überlingen area. The Boeing, which lost its stabilizer, went into a dive, then lost its right engine at an altitude of about 500 meters and also crashed. None of the passengers or crew members of both aircraft survived.
Consequences of the disaster
The official causes of the disaster are the ignorance of the Tu-154 crew of the recommendations of the TCAS system, as well as the belated instruction of the dispatcher. In addition, errors in the work of Skyguide were also pointed out - in particular, the fact that every night only one controller followed the flights, while the second rested.
On February 24, 2004, a year and a half after the tragedy, Russian Vitaly Kaloev, who lost his wife, son and daughter in that crash, killed air traffic controller Peter Nielsen on the threshold of his own house in Switzerland. Peter Nielsen left three orphans, and Kaloev was arrested the next day by the Swiss police.
In 2005, the court sentenced Vitaly Kaloev to 8 years imprisonment, but already in November 2007 he was released ahead of schedule and in 2008 he became Deputy Minister of Construction and Architecture of North Ossetia.
