Vitaly Kaloev about the film “Consequences”: Schwarzenegger didn’t ask how I felt. Tragedy over Lake Constance: a film with Schwarzenegger and other films about the plane crash The controller responsible for the plane collision
Fifteen years have passed since the tragedy occurred in the skies over Germany. The 2002 plane crash over Lake Constance killed 71 people, most of whom were children.
Plane crash
The plane crash occurred in 2002 on the night from the first to the second of July in the area of Lake Constance in the skies over Germany. The collision of two planes claimed the lives of 19 adults and 52 children. Almost all of the victims were passengers of the Russian Tu-154m airliner, on which the children were flying on vacation to Spain. The plane belonged to the Bashkir Airlines company; it was operating a charter flight from Moscow to Spain (Barcelona).
The second plane involved in the collision, a Boeing-757 of the international air transportation company HDL, was flying from Italy (Bergamo) to Belgium (Brussels). There were 57 passengers on board the Tu-154M, of which only five were adults, and 52 were children, as well as 12 crew members.
Airplane passengers
Among those killed in the 2002 plane crash over Lake Constance were many children. This is due to the fact that they were flying to Spain on vacation. Talented students were rewarded with a trip for high academic achievements. The UNESCO Committee provided vouchers for Bashkir children.
Random Events
After the collision over Lake Constance, it became clear that the event was preceded by a whole series of fatal accidents, which could not have been noticed if trouble had not happened. The Bashkir children should not have flown that night at all. By chance, the accompanying adults brought them to the wrong airport. Instead of Domodedovo, where their plane took off for Barcelona, they ended up at Sheremetyevo. Naturally, they missed their flight.
Many schoolchildren who went on vacation were children of high-ranking officials. For example, on board was the fifteen-year-old daughter of the head of administration under the President of Bashkortostan, Leysan Gimaeva.
If there were children from ordinary families in the group, they would probably just go home, missing the plane. The schoolchildren, of course, would be disappointed, but they would still be alive.
However, events developed according to a completely different scenario. Influential parents decided to send a Bashkir Airlines plane to Moscow, which could transport their children to Spain on a charter flight. The head of the airliner's crew was Alexander Gross, who had previously flown to Barcelona and knew the route very well.
After the schoolchildren boarded the plane, it turned out that there were still several empty seats available. The decision was made to sell these seven tickets with lightning speed. So gradually the number of future victims increased.
Four tickets were purchased by the Shislovsky family from Belarus, who missed their flight and were therefore forced to fly others. Three more tickets went to Svetlana Kaloeva, a resident of North Ossetia, with two children, who was flying to her husband Vitaly, who was working under a contract in Spain. After the collision over Lake Constance, the names of the accidental passengers were not immediately clear.
How it was...
On the fateful night before the plane crash over Lake Constance, both airliners that subsequently collided were in the skies over Germany itself, but for some reason the management of their movement was transferred to the Swiss company Skyneid, located in Zurich. In this flight center, as a rule, only three people worked at night: an assistant and two dispatchers. However, it was on this terrible night that only one person was on duty. It was Peter Nielsen, who was forced to monitor two terminals at once.
When the controller noticed something was wrong, the planes were already in line at a distance of 36,000 feet, which meant that there were only seconds left before the collision. For what reasons the duty officer discovered the problem so late is unknown, but a plane crash over Lake Constance was already almost inevitable. However, even in this situation it was possible to try to do something to save the situation. But unfortunately, Peter Nelson got it completely wrong. Either he was unprepared for such emergency situations, or he was simply confused... But his erroneous commands led to the death of many people.
Erroneous dispatcher commands
When Peter Nelson realized that the liners' courses were intersecting and they were inexorably approaching each other, he tried to correct the situation. Therefore, he gave the command to the Russian plane to descend. It is worth noting that at this moment the crew themselves noticed the approach of another side from the left side. The pilots were ready to perform a maneuver in order to disperse safely.
However, after a command from the ground dispatcher on board the Russian aircraft, the automatic TCAS system was activated, which warns of the danger of approach. So, she informed about the need to gain altitude.
At the same time, an identical system activated on the Boeing, prompting the pilots to gain altitude. Perhaps the disaster could have been avoided if these commands had been followed on both planes. The co-pilot of the Russian airliner immediately noticed a discrepancy between the dispatcher and TCAS commands, which he immediately reported to the rest of the team. But I received an answer that ground commands would be carried out. Moreover, the order to descend was received again.
Whose mistake caused the tragedy?
It is difficult to blame the pilots for the plane crash over Lake Constance, because they followed commands from the ground, as prescribed by the instructions. Later, the investigation will establish the cause of the disaster - an untimely command from dispatcher Peter Nielsen. He provided erroneous information to the Russian pilots that there was a side to their right. Decoding the black boxes showed that the team was simply misled. The pilots, relying on the dispatcher, considered that there was another plane to their right, which the TCAS system had not detected, because it is no secret that ground-based installations provide more accurate data, and on-board instruments may fail for some reason.
Considering that pilots have only fractions of a second to make important decisions, and confusion in such situations is tantamount to death, the team followed the instructions of the ground attendant. It remains a mystery why none of the pilots informed Peter Nielsen that his command was contradicting the messages of the automatic safety system. Perhaps there was simply not enough time for this.
Airplane collision
After the dispatcher's command, a plane crash over Lake Constance could not be avoided. Both planes were descending. At the same time, the Russian plane carried out the command of Peter Nielsen, and the Boeing operated according to the instructions of the TCAS system. Both teams reported their actions to the ground controller, but Peter Nielsen did not hear one of the commands because they were both communicating at the same time on different frequencies. And if there were several people on duty in the control room at that time, as there should be, the information would have been heard on time.
In the last seconds before the plane crash over Lake Constance, the pilots of the two planes tried as best they could to avoid the collision by deflecting the controls. However, their attempts were in vain. The collision of the airliners occurred almost at a right angle. An HDL cargo plane crashed into a Russian one, causing the Tu-154M to split in half at an altitude of ten kilometers. The wreckage of the liner fell into four parts and scattered in the vicinity of the town of Iberlingen. And the remains of the Boeing were discovered seven kilometers from the Russian airliner.
Air crash investigation
The tragedy over Lake Constance caused long investigations. Since the disaster occurred over Germany, the German Federal Office was in charge of the investigation. The first conclusions of the commission were given only two years later.
The report presented the following reasons why a plane crash occurred over Lake Constance involving a Tu-154 and a Boeing:
- The air traffic controller failed to correctly ensure the separation of the airliners in a timely manner.
- The instruction to descend was given too late.
Subsequently, all charges against the pilots were dropped.
During the investigation, a number of other circumstances were revealed. As it turned out, telephone communication equipment and automatic notification of the approach of aircraft to the flight control center were turned off for unknown reasons. The backup telephone lines were also not working. A more responsible dispatcher from the city of Karlsruhe in Germany noticed the approach of the planes and repeatedly tried to call the point where Nielsen was on duty, but all attempts were unsuccessful.
Immediately after the disaster, Peter Nielsen was suspended from work until the causes and circumstances of the tragedy were clarified. As for the Skyguide company, the investigative authorities organized a criminal investigation against it.
Results of the disaster
Immediately after the plane crash, Skyguide blamed the pilots of the Russian airliner for the events. According to them, the crew incorrectly followed the commands because they did not understand the dispatcher’s instructions in English. Only in 2004 did the German Federal Office publish the official conclusion of the investigation. According to the conclusion, the dispatcher from the Skyguide company was to blame for the collision. Only after the results of the investigation were published, the company admitted its guilt. Only two years later did the director of the company bother to apologize to the families of those who died on that terrible night. And on May 19, 2004, Josef Deiss (President of Sweden) sent Vladimir Putin an official document apologizing for what happened.
It was only in December 2006 that Alain Rossier resigned from his position as director of Skyguide.
And in September 2007, a court in the Swiss town of Bülach convicted four Skyguide employees of negligence in their duties, which led to the tragedy. A total of eight people who worked for the Swiss company were put on trial. The defendants refused to admit their guilt, shifting all responsibility onto Peter Nielsen, who had already died at that time. Yet four managers were found guilty of manslaughter.
All of them were given different punishments. Three workers were given only suspended prison sentences, and one was given only a fine.
Consequences of the 2002 disaster
The series of troubles did not end after the planes crashed. Grief-stricken relatives could not withstand the trials that befell them; some families broke up after the tragedy. The tragedy claimed many lives. The list of those killed in the disaster over Lake Constance initially consisted of the names of 52 children and 19 adults. However, on February 24, 2004, another name was added to the list - Nielsen.
The same dispatcher, through whose fault the cancerous error occurred, was killed by Vitaly Kaloev, whose children and wife accidentally became passengers on the ill-fated flight. The court considered the case for a year. And in October 2005, Kaloyev admitted his guilt, sentencing him to eight years in prison. However, taking into account the serious mental state of the man, as well as all the circumstances of the case, the term was subsequently reduced to five years. Three years later, Kaloyev was released for good behavior, after which he returned to North Ossetia.
Memorial to the victims
At the site of the tragedy in 2004, a memorial was erected to those killed in a plane crash over Lake Constance - a torn string of pearls symbolizes the scattered debris of the plane. The idea for creating such a monument was the pearl necklace of the girl Diana (daughter of that same Kaloev), found at the site of the tragedy.
Almost all victims of the disaster were buried at the Southern Cemetery in Ufa. Their graves were arranged according to how people sat on the plane.
Silent Reminder
Another memorial reminds of that tragedy. In Zurich in 2006, next to the Skyguide building, a monument made of stone and glass was erected in the form of a spiral, along which 72 candles are located, symbolizing the 71 victims of the disaster and one dispatcher.
Disaster film
The terrible tragedy and its further consequences, as well as the act of Vitaly Kaloev, formed the basis of the film “Consequences,” filmed in the USA. Of course, much of it was changed and the action was moved to America, but it was the 2002 plane crash that served as the basis for filming. The main character of the film was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. His name is Roman Melnik, he has been living and working in the USA for a long time. And then his pregnant wife and daughter finally fly to him. That is why a monument to the three will be erected at the grave... As in the real story, the Miller himself finds his daughter’s beads and her body. And also goes crazy in search of those responsible for the tragedy. The company whose dispatcher caused the disaster offers him compensation, but he does not understand why the culprit of the accident is still at large. The miller goes to the dispatcher's house with a knife and everything happens according to the same scenario as in real life. Only a few details were changed by the director, who managed to convey on the screen the incredible experiences of the main character.
The ship's crew was quite experienced. The commander - A. M. Gross (fifty-two years old) - flew 12,070 hours. He became the first pilot of this aircraft in May 2001, before which he served as co-pilot.
In addition to the PIC, in the cockpit there was also M. A. Itkulov, who had worked at Bashkiravia for eighteen years. He has been the co-pilot of this vessel since April 2001.
The navigator was S.G. Kharlov, probably the most experienced crew member. He had been working for the airline for twenty-seven years, having flown almost 13,000 hours.
Flight engineer O.I. was in the cockpit. Valeev, as well as the inspector (first class pilot). The latter was in the co-pilot's place and observed Gross's actions.
Four flight attendants worked in the aircraft cabin. The most experienced was Olga Bagina, who spent 11,546 hours in the sky.
Thus, the plane crash over Lake Constance claimed the lives of nine crew members.
Passengers Tu-154
There were sixty people on board the airliner. They all died.
The worst news of that day was a plane crash over Lake Constance. The list of dead spoke louder than all the media, because fifty-two passengers were children whose lives were just beginning.
Almost all those flying were from the capital of Bashkiria - Ufa. Almost all of the dead guys were children of high-ranking officials of the republic (for example, the daughter of the head of the presidential administration of Bashkortostan, the daughter of the deputy minister for culture, the son of the director of the Iglinsky plant and others).
The list of victims of the plane crash over Lake Constance was supplemented by Ekaterina Pospelova (b. 1973), who was the deputy dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities for educational work.
The rest of the passengers also belonged to the elite of Bashkiria, for example, Svetlana Kaloyeva, deputy general director of the Daryal plant. She was flying with her two children to meet her husband, who was working in Spain.
The plane crash over Lake Constance became the largest for Bashkiria. Mourning in the republic lasted three days.
Boeing 757
This aircraft was produced in 1990 and was the oldest among its airline's other aircraft (it had flown more than 39,000 hours).
In 1996, the aircraft was purchased by a cargo company and used to transport documentation and other materials.
On the ill-fated day, the Englishman Paul Phillips, forty-seven years old, was sitting at the helm. He was a fairly experienced pilot. He worked for the company for thirteen years. As an aircraft commander - since 1991.
The co-pilot was Brent Cantioni from Canada.
Since the plane was a cargo plane, there were only two crew members on board, whose lives were taken in a plane crash over Lake Constance.
Events before the tragedy
Passengers on flight 2937 were flying from Moscow to Barcelona. For most of the children, this trip was an incentive for excellent studies and extracurricular activities. The UNESCO Committee paid for these deadly holidays. The head of the Committee lost his daughter on this flight.
It must be said that the hype around this flight began long before departure from Ufa. Almost all high-ranking officials were eager to get a seat for their children on the plane, so for some “ordinary citizens” this power saved their lives. For example, journalist L. Sabitova and her six-year-old daughter had to board that ill-fated plane. The director of the travel agency that organized this trip promised Sabitova trips to Spain as a fee for the article. But on the last day he canceled everything, explaining this by pressure from above. The places of the journalist and her child were taken by the children of the top authorities of Bashkiria.
The fatal flight might not have happened, but a group of Bashkir schoolchildren were late for their flight, realizing the importance of the passengers, and quickly organized an additional one. It also sold eight tickets directly in Moscow.
I was flying on a scheduled cargo flight from Bahrain to Brussels. Before the collision, he had already made an intermediate landing in Bergamo. The plane crash (2002) over Lake Constance occurred half an hour after they took off from Italian soil.
Collision
At the time of the collision, both aircraft were in German airspace. Despite this circumstance, the movement in the sky was controlled by a Swiss company. There were only two dispatchers at work that night shift, one of whom left his workplace shortly before the disaster.
Since Peter Nielsen was alone at his post and had to monitor several air routes, he did not immediately notice that two planes were moving towards each other in the same flight level.
PIC TU-154 was the first to notice an object in the sky moving in their direction. He decided to descend. Around the same time, Nielsen got in touch and also gave instructions for a decline. However, he did not provide the necessary information to the other board, which was dangerously close.
The “Dangerous approach” signal went off on the Boeing and gave the command to descend. In parallel, the same signal on the TU-154 ordered it to gain altitude. The Boeing pilot began to descend, and the TU-154 pilot, acting on the orders of the dispatcher, did the same.
Nielsen also misled the crew by giving incorrect information about the Boeing's location. The planes collided at 21:35:32 almost at a right angle. At 21:37, aircraft debris fell to the ground in the vicinity of Überlingen.
The plane crash (2002) over Lake Constance was visible from the ground. Some, seeing two fireballs in the sky, decided that it was a UFO.
Investigation
A special commission undertook to find out the causes of the tragedy. It was created by the German Federal Office that investigates plane crashes. Two planes collided over Lake Constance, killing all passengers. The report of this commission was announced only two years later.
Among the main reasons were the incorrect actions (or rather inaction) of the dispatcher and the error of the TU-154 crew, who ignored the automatic warning system for dangerous approaches, completely subordinate to Peter Nielsen.
Illegal actions of the SkyGuide company, which was involved in air traffic control, were also noted. Management should not have allowed only one dispatcher to be on duty at night.
On the ill-fated night, the telephone connection in the control room was not working, as was the equipment (radar) that warns of possible approach of planes.
All these facts were taken into account by the commission that is investigating the plane crashes.
The collision over Lake Constance caused a great resonance not only in society, but also in the entire flight control system. Because if the TU-154 crew had acted on orders from the warning system, the tragedy would not have happened. However, in regulatory documents such a system was called auxiliary, that is, the dispatcher’s instructions took priority. After the incident, it was decided to make appropriate changes to flight management.
Murder of the dispatcher
On July 1, 2002, a plane crash occurred over Lake Constance. The list of those killed included Svetlana Kaloyeva and her two children: Kostya and Diana. The family flew to Barcelona, where their father Vitaly was.
The man was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and personally helped find the remains of his loved ones.
In February 2004, Kaloev was detained on suspicion of murdering Peter Nielsen, the same dispatcher. A man was fatally shot on the threshold of his home in Zurich. Vitaly did not admit his guilt, but confirmed that he visited Peter in order to receive an apology for what he had done.
Kaloev was sentenced to eight years in prison. In November 2007, the man was released early and deported to Russia.
Court
The plane crash over Lake Constance, the reconstruction of which proved the unlawful actions of the controller, gave rise to high-profile lawsuits.
Thus, the Bashkir Airlines company filed a lawsuit against SkyGuide, and then against Germany. The accusations were that neither side took the necessary measures to ensure traffic safety in the airspace.
The court ruled that Germany was responsible for the incident because the country did not have the right to transfer air traffic control to a foreign company. The conflict between the country and the airline was settled out of court only in 2013.
SkyGuide was found responsible for the plane crash over Lake Constance. The list of perpetrators consisted of four people, one of whom only received a fine.
Memory
At the site of the plane crash, a monument was erected in the form of a torn string of pearls.
In Zurich, where the planes were controlled, the control room is always decorated with fresh flowers in memory of the victims.
A memorial to those killed in the plane crash over Lake Constance was erected in Ufa, in the cemetery where their remains are buried.
15 years have passed since the tragedy over Lake Constance. The film “Consequences” once again reminded the whole world of the act of the inconsolable father Vitaly Kaloev. Then the public was divided into two camps. Some justified his actions by citing his grave condition and passion. Others considered him a brutal killer who killed the dispatcher in front of his wife and children. How does Vitaly Kaloev, who lost his entire family, live now, and how did this terrible story end? Let's find out all the details and try to understand this extraordinary incident.
Biography
Born on January 15, 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz). My father was a school teacher - he taught the Ossetian language. Mother worked as a kindergarten teacher. Vitaly was the youngest in a large family - there were three brothers and three sisters in total. He graduated from school with honors and went to study the art of architecture. While studying, he worked part-time as a construction foreman. Before perestroika, he worked as an architect and took part in the construction of the Sputnik military camp.
In the difficult years after the collapse of the USSR, he formed his own construction cooperative. Since 1999 he lived in Spain, where he designed houses for his compatriots.
Family
Vitaly Kaloev married Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva in 1991. The girl graduated from the Faculty of Economics and successfully built a career. Starting as a simple bank employee, she rose to the rank of department head. On November 19, 1991, the first child appeared in the family. The boy was named Konstantin in honor of his paternal grandfather. Diana was born on March 7, 1998. Kostya chose his sister’s name. At school, the boy studied well and was drawn to astronautics and paleontology.
Unlucky flight
Vitaly Kaloev had not seen his family for nine months and was looking forward to their arrival in Spain. He worked successfully in Barcelona and managed to complete the project by the time his family arrived. Svetlana and her children could not buy tickets in Moscow until seats became available on that same Bashkir Airlines plane.
Late at night on July 2, 2002, two planes collided in the skies over southern Germany: a passenger TU-154 and a cargo Boeing 757. Both crews were killed, and children were killed - 52 children aged from 8 to 16 years. Almost all of them were students at the Ufa school for especially gifted children. They were flying to Barcelona. They were awarded vouchers for their academic success and brilliant results in school competitions.
Collision
This disaster became the worst tragedy in the history of civil aviation of the 21st century. The plane collision occurred in the skies over Germany, so the investigation was carried out by the German prosecutor's office and the Federal Bureau of Air Accident Investigation. It took two years to establish the cause of the disaster. For the Germans, the main questions were two: how did the dangerous approach of two aircraft occur and why was the collision avoidance system unable to prevent the disaster?
The commission found that the aircraft collision was the result of an error by the Skyguide dispatcher, contradictions in the instructions of the international civil aviation organization and the rules of the collision avoidance system. And also because of the incorrect actions of the TU-154 crew. Further investigation proved the accusations against the Russian pilots to be unfounded, and they will be cleared of blame for the collision. However, the fate of another Russian, whose trial took place at the end of October 2005, is already clear. deprived him of his family and faith in justice.
The most superficial glance at the commission’s findings shows that the results of the investigation are extremely contradictory. If at the time of the crash the pilots followed the dispatcher's instructions, then the dispatcher is to blame. If in a critical situation the pilots acted contrary to instructions from the ground, then the pilots themselves are to blame, and the dispatcher has absolutely nothing to do with it. This strange fact would have gone unnoticed if not for one dramatic incident in the small Swiss town of Kloten.
Murder of Peter Nielsen
On February 24, 2004, in the Zurich suburb of Kloten, a certain Peter Nielsen was brutally murdered on the threshold of his own home. The killer struck the victim numerous times with a bladed weapon, which was later found near the scene of the incident. It turned out to be a souvenir knife worth 54. A neighbor of the murdered man testified that a few minutes before the incident, a stranger asked her in bad German where Peter Nielsen lived.
Hot on the trail, a sketch of the suspect was compiled. However, no witnesses to the crime could be found. This was strange because Kloten is a small village where the houses are located a few meters apart. The streets, approaches and entrances are clearly visible from the windows, and all life goes on in full view of the neighbors. The Swiss police immediately rejected the robbery version. The criminal or criminals did not touch anything in the house. Why then was it necessary to take the life of a simple resident of a Swiss village?
Identifying the killer
The answer came at the moment when it became clear that Peter Nielsen was the same controller whose erroneous commands led to the collision of two planes. The very next day, the police arrested Russian citizen Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev. According to the Swiss investigation, the accused went to the dispatcher's house the night before and had a conversation with a neighbor. The man rang the doorbell, and when the owner of the house came out, he tried to talk to him. Then there was a quarrel, and Kaloev was the first to take out a knife. Vitaly Kaloev killed the dispatcher, stabbing him 12 times. Initially, the first suspect was another Russian, Vladimir Savchuk. He also lost his entire family in a plane crash, but had an airtight alibi. On the day of the murder he was in Russia.
Reasons and motives
The motive for the crime, according to Swiss law enforcement agencies, could be the Russian’s personal revenge. In Kaloev he lost his entire family - his wife and two children. But he did not admit his guilt in the murder of the dispatcher. From the investigation materials. “I knocked, identified myself and gestured to be invited into the house. He didn’t want to invite me and took on a defiant look. I said nothing, took a photograph of my dead children out of my pocket and handed it to him, telling him to look.” What happened after that, Kaloev does not remember. During interrogation, he stated: “I don’t remember what actually happened. But when I see the evidence, I think it was me who killed Mr. Nielsen.” The Swiss prosecutor's office considered these words of the Russian an official admission of his guilt. However, some of the facts raise more questions than answers. Why did Kaloev go to kill the dispatcher, taking with him an inconvenient pocket knife? Why did Nilsen wait for the killer to pull out a gun and open it instead of hiding in the house?
The tragedy of Vitaly Kaloev
The Russian was among the first to arrive at the site of the plane crash and was eager to examine the accident site together with the rescuers. Having learned that his entire family was on this flight, he was given permission to enter the cordoned off area. He wandered for a long time between the wreckage of the plane, trying to find his wife and children. Finally, three kilometers from the crash site, he found the beads of his youngest daughter, and then Diana herself. A little later, he discovered the body of his son. It later turned out that the boy fell right next to the intersection that Vitaly was passing by, but he did not recognize him as his child. Witnesses and video footage served as the best evidence of the man’s unbearable grief: he was choking on sobs and literally could not control himself during these terrible days. He did not leave the scene of the plane crash until the last hours. Vitaly Kaloev not only lost his family - he lost his life.
Support and assistance
Kaloev perfectly remembers all the moments of being at the scene of the tragedy. He recalls how at first they did not want to let him participate in the search, but then the situation changed. Volunteers and police simply could not stand being in this territory. People fainted and were removed. When he discovered the place where his Diana fell, he began to touch the ground, trying to understand whether the soul of his child remained here or had already gone to heaven. He felt the beads with his fingers and asked the German woman if it was possible to erect a monument to Diana in this place? Fundraising began immediately, and later the architect erected a monument to all the victims of the disaster on this site. It represents a torn string of beads.
Questionable treatment
After his arrest, Kaloev was placed in a psychiatric hospital. During the entire time Vitaly was there, there was not a single independent examination that would objectively assess the Russian’s condition and methods of treatment. He spent a whole year in the clinic. What happened to his memory during this time? One thing is clear - even after many months of treatment, Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev never took responsibility for the death of dispatcher Nielsen. According to investigators, the Russian wanted to avenge the death of his wife and two children. This is a serious motive. But why then did Kaloev delay taking revenge for almost a year and a half, since he learned the name of the dispatcher in the first days after the disaster?
Sentence
On October 26, 2005, the story of Vitaly Kaloev again appeared on the pages of all printed publications. The Russian was sentenced to eight years in prison. The world community again remembered those terrible days and the tragedy over Lake Constance. The people of Switzerland themselves did not expect such a harsh sentence. In prison, the Russian received batches of letters in which people expressed their support and wished him a speedy release. He corresponded with some people, in particular with one Swiss woman. She sent him cards and cheered him up these two years. Her friend's children drew pictures for him. At home in Ossetia, the people were indignant and demanded a review of the case. Based on circumstantial evidence alone and without a confession, Kaloyev was imprisoned for eight years.
Liberation
The Swiss authorities did not interfere with the release of the Russian after two years of imprisonment. For exemplary behavior, he was released and returned home. In North Ossetia he was greeted as a national hero. The first thing the man did was go to the cemetery, where he cried for a long time at the grave of his wife and children. The years could not erase all the pain and resentment from his memory and heart. Now he could calmly talk about what he had to endure during those year and a half. He didn't need monetary compensation. All he wanted was to hear words of apology from the company itself. Without getting even a word of repentance from them, he went home to the dispatcher. But he behaved impudently and knocked photographs of dead children out of his hands. He doesn’t remember further events, but even if his hands are really bloody, he didn’t do it for fun. The fate of Vitaly Kaloev was very difficult, and he paid in full for this crime.
Another life
Returning home, Kaloev received the post of Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Policy of the republic. He actively took part in many public events. Everyone who knew and communicated with Vitaly characterizes him as a kind and sympathetic person. He will never pass by someone else's grief. During the war in South Ossetia, he was seen in the ranks of the militia, but no one began to confirm this information.
Many are interested in where Vitaly Kaloev lives and what is happening to him now. At the moment, favorable changes have occurred in his life. In 2014, Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time. His wife was a kind, decent woman. He does not disclose details of his family life. What is known is that he still lives in the same house where his former family lived. On his anniversary (60 years) he received the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia”. He answers all questions about his actions and Nielsen’s family like this: “His children are growing up healthy, cheerful, his wife is happy with her children, his parents are happy with their grandchildren. Who should I be happy about? Everyone decides for himself how strong Vitaly Kaloev’s guilt is in front of another family.
Vitaly Kaloev, a suspect in the murder of an air traffic controller for the Swiss company Skyguide, due to whose mistake two planes collided over Lake Constance, gave his first interview. Now the Russian is awaiting trial. Kaloev does not deny his guilt, but says that he does not remember how he committed the crime while in a state of passion. In a telephone interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, he spoke about what happened on the day when air traffic controller Peter Nielsen was killed.“I knocked. Nielsen came out. I first motioned for him to invite me into the house. But he slammed the door. I called again and told him: “Ikh bin Russland” (“I am Russia”). I remember these words from school . He remained silent. I took out photographs that showed 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, I was offended. Even my eyes filled with tears. I extended my hand with the photographs to him for the second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped me on the hand... The photographs flew... And away we go ... Probably,” said Vitaly 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 force him to apologize for his tragic mistake: “I decided to make him repent. I wanted to show him photographs of my murdered family, and then go with him to Skyguide and call the television to "They - Nielsen and Rossier (the head of the company) - apologized to me on camera. This desire of mine was not a 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, so that I renounce my dead family: received compensation and signed papers according to which I agreed so that the company would no longer be persecuted. I was outraged by this. I called them and said that I would like to meet with Nielsen and discuss these issues. He first agreed, but then he refused."
Kaloev admits that he does not regret the death of the dispatcher: “How should I feel sorry for him? You see, it didn’t make me feel any better that he died. My children didn’t return...” While in prison, he is unable to speak Russian, but truly suffers only because he cannot visit the graves of his loved ones.
The suspect in the murder, a native of North Ossetia, says that he understands better than anyone else what it is like now for the relatives of the victims of the Beslan tragedy: “No one understands the Beslanites better than me. I don’t know how they can continue to live.” “I watched it on TV and sent a telegram of condolences to the president of North Ossetia... And I wrote about what bastards the Swiss are, they told me: “Serves you right!” And the doctor here said: “You should feel better. Because there are already a lot of people like you..." says Kaloev.
The Russian said that, like many residents of Beslan, he still sees no point in further life: “For now, my plans are to live to see the trial. But I’m not afraid of it. And I don’t recognize it. That’s what I told them: the Swiss court is for means nothing to me. For me, the judgment 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 a Russian plane, a cargo Boeing 757 and a Tu-154 of Bashkir Airlines collided. There were 69 people on board the latter. All of them, including Kaloev’s wife, son and daughter, died.
Numerous violations of safety rules committed by Skyguide, after two years, nevertheless forced the Swiss. Last summer, after Nielsen’s death, they offered to pay $150 thousand for each victim, but this move only angered the relatives.
A tragic story, namely: " Airplane collision in the sky"occurred in June 2002.
City Ufa. In this city, both Christians and adherents of Islam have lived in peace for centuries. That year, the most talented children and teenagers of Ufa were invited to a two-week vacation in Barcelona. This trip was paid for by UNESCO. The smartest, most developed and gifted children were supposed to take part in it. For example, Kirill Dekhtyarev has been drawing since he was 4 years old. During 10 years of practice, he had two personal exhibitions.
Kirill's mother: It was going to be a very interesting holiday. So we agreed to the trip. Kirill finished 9th grade and needed to rest. And this was a good option.
Alina Khananova, a 12-year-old gymnast, was also going on the trip. By that time, she had already won several prestigious competitions.
Alina's mother: We were very happy about the trip. There were actually very smart and gifted children flying there. Extraordinary both in beauty and intelligence.
45 children from Ufa, together with their teachers, went to Moscow by train. A plane was waiting for them there, on which they were supposed to fly to Spain. But already in Moscow the first troubles began. The travel agency made a mistake and sent the children to the wrong airport. The guys were late for their flight and were very upset. While the agency was trying its best to correct its mistake, the children were given a tour of the Russian capital. It took 2 days to find another plane.
On July 1, 2002, children from Ufa boarded a plane at Moscow airport. The Kaloyev family was also on board. They were not part of the group from Ufa. They flew to Spain to meet their father, a famous architect. At that time he was finishing another project near Barcelona. The plane was controlled by 5 people. Captain Alexander Gross worked in aviation for 30 years. The second pilot was Oleg Gregorev. But in fact, he served as captain. He had to observe Gross's actions and evaluate them.
At about 11 o'clock in the evening, the Tu-154 flight 2937 of Bashkir Airlines took off from Moscow. Like most modern aircraft, the Tu-154 was equipped with a TCAS traffic warning system. This system works based on repeaters installed in each aircraft. TCAS detects transponder waves and calculates whether there are any intersecting flights on the aircraft's route. If the system detects the slightest danger of a collision, it warns pilots and advises what actions to take.
Hundreds of kilometers away in the Italian town of Bergamo, a Boeing 757 plane was taking off. He was flying on behalf of the international cargo company DHL. This plane was heading to Brussels. A Russian Tu-154 had to miss a Boeing 757 in the skies over southern Germany. There were only two people on board the cargo plane: Captain Paul Philipps and his first officer Brand Compioni. The Boeing 757 took off at 11:06 p.m. and began its final flight.
A few hours beforeAirplane collisions in mid-air, the night shift has begun at the mission control center in Zurich (Switzerland). Peter Nielsen has worked in this control center for 8 years. The center was responsible for flight safety in the skies over southern Germany and northern Switzerland. There were supposed to be 2 operators working that night. But there were few planes in their zone, and Nielsen’s colleague went to rest. This was a common practice at mission control. From then on, Peter Nilsson was responsible for all air traffic, which was monitored on two screens. At 23:10 two technicians arrived. They told Peter that they needed to perform a technical inspection of the main radar. While they were checking it, the signal coming to the screen was slower than usual. In addition, the collision warning signal was switched off. Technicians also disconnected all telephone lines. At that time, no one realized that the first steps towards tragedy had already been taken.
A Russian plane carrying schoolchildren was flying over central Germany and approaching Switzerland. Captain Grigoriev received the latest instructions from German air traffic controllers. After this, the German center gave the Tu-154 under the guardianship of Switzerland, and personally to Peter Nielsen. At this time, the Boeing 757 also entered Swiss airspace. Boeing 757 captain Paul Philipps asked for permission to increase the flight altitude. Boeing 757 rose to a height of 11 kilometers. A Russian plane was flying at the same altitude. But there was a great distance between them. There was no danger yet.
Nilsson's assistant gave him a new task. It was necessary to help an Airbus land at one of the airports in Switzerland. Since Nielsen was monitoring two screens at once, he wanted to transfer this task to controllers at the Airbus destination. However, phone lines weren't working. A large plane requested a landing, and the controller had to look away from one screen, leaving the Tu-154 unattended. Several planes were calling Nielsen at the same time, and he was busy with them. Dispatchers are accustomed to hectic and stressful work, however, that night some warning devices did not work. Nielsen tried to call the airport control post for the third time, but the phones still did not work.
At that time Boeing 757 and Tu-154 flew towards each other at great speed. The crew of neither aircraft suspected that they had 2.5 minutes left before the collision. The Boeing 757 was approaching the Swiss-German border. The Russian Tupolev was flying to the same point, at the same altitude. Finally, one of the German mission control centers noticed the danger. The dispatcher grabbed the phone to alert Nielsen to the situation, but he couldn't reach him. International aviation regulations did not allow him to address pilots directly.
Unexpectedly, the TCAS system activated on board the Tu-154. A few minutes later, the system on board the Boeing 757 detected the Russian plane. The Russian pilots were puzzled. They did not know at what altitude the Boeing was flying. At the same time, the cargo plane pilot began descending at the command of the TCAS system. Finally, Peter Nielsen himself noticed the danger. He gave the order for the Tu-154 to descend. Captain Gross turned off the autopilot and began to descend. But the TCAS system told the Russian pilots to climb. The controller repeated that the Tu-154 should descend immediately. At that time he believed that he had prevented plane crash and collision in the sky. But he did not know that the Boeing 757 pilots received instructions from the on-board TCAS system, and it also ordered them to descend. They tried to tell Nielsen about their descent, but he was busy with other planes and did not hear them. If both planes had followed the instructions of the on-board safety system, nothing would have happened. But the Tu-154 chose to obey the operator, and the planes again flew at the same altitude. Alarms sounded in the cockpits of both aircraft. The Tu-154 pilots realized their mistake too late, and the planes collided in the sky. The tail of the Boeing 757 seemed to rip open the Russian plane and cut it into two parts. The pilots almost immediately lost consciousness. The crew of the Boeing 757 fought for their lives for another 2 minutes. They fell 7 kilometers from the crash site of the Tu-154.
Peter Nielsen didn't yet know what had happened. But soon neither the passenger nor the cargo plane made contact. Mission control center realized that the planes had collided. This is a nightmare for any dispatcher.
The wreckage of two planes fell near the small town of Überlingen. It was the worst plane crash in the history of post-war Germany.
Eyewitness: The sky was orange. We saw bright sparks falling down. And also explosions. Over and over again. Amazingly, nothing fell on the houses. But near our school we found the bodies of dead children. We soon realized that there was nothing we could do to help.
Policeman: The problem was that the bodies and debris were scattered over a huge area of 40 square kilometers. It was a corridor 12 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide. We conducted the largest search operation in our history.
The search operation lasted a week. 6,000 people took part in it. Everything was literally strewn with rubble. Many trees were burned due to the fire. As a result, many Ufa children were buried in Uberlingen. 28 children's bodies were found in the area.
Vitaly Kaloev was waiting for his family in Barcelona. He was one of the first to arrive at the crash site. Although the police did not want him to take part in the search for bodies, Vitaly insisted. In the grass he found a torn pearl necklace. It belonged to his 4 year old daughter. He also found her body nearby.
Policeman: Two days after the crash, relatives of the victims began to arrive. But they were not shown the bodies of the children, because they were all severely disfigured. There was a lot of crying.
Ufa has become a city of sorrow. People of different religions were shocked by what happened. Over time, a separate cemetery was established there for the victims of the tragedy. They also unveiled a monument in the form of a chain of paper airplanes, frozen in flight. Vitaly Kaloev lost his entire family in a plane crash. He erected a huge monument in their memory.
Work continued at the Skyguide control center in Zurich. However, everyone was shocked. Over the next three weeks, the dispatch center's operating hours were relaxed. Peter Nielsen never worked at a camera station longer.
Dispatcher: If you went through this, you will never return to your old job. This is too deep a shock.
As always, after the tragedy, the search for those responsible began. First of all, suspicion fell on the Russian crew.
Expert: The pilot of the Russian plane did not carry out repeated orders. SystemTCASI asked him many times to change the height.
Over time, Peter Nilsson became the main suspect. It was he who controlled the movement of aircraft. The media added fuel to the fire. They spun the story more and more. Journalists took excerpts from the words of professionals and composed the text they needed. The dispatcher was simply hounded by the press. They called him a murderer.
The official investigation was carried out by German air crash detectives. On the fifth day, they found “black boxes” containing aircraft flight recorders. All the debris was also taken to a special hangar. They had hard work ahead of them.
A year later, many relatives of the victims came to Überlingen again to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy. The Germans built a monument at the crash site. They were huge silver pearls on a torn necklace. Peter Nilsson was present at the anniversary, as well as Vitaly Kaloev.
As a result of their work, investigators learned incredible facts about the TCAS system. When it was just put into operation, a serious mistake was made. Nobody ever said what to do if the instructions from TCAS and the center operator are opposite to each other. There was no specific order to the pilots what to do. Pilots in the West are taught to obey TCAS first. In the rest of the world, you just have to guess whose order is correct.
Expert: In Russian civil aviation, there were cases when pilots did not follow the dispatcher’s orders, and this led to tragedy.
The prerequisites for this tragedy appeared within a year and a half. A similar disaster almost occurred when two airliners nearly collided in mid-air over Japan. They were so close that they could see each other's faces through the windows. Then a bold maneuver saved the planes from disaster. The cause of the danger was that the pilots listened to the operator and not the onboard TCAS system. There were also 4 dangerous situations in Europe. In all of them, the pilots listened to the controller, not the TCAS system. Unfortunately, these cases did not serve as a warning. Bureaucratic standards came into play, and the relevant services did not react properly.
Expert: If I had to put the conclusions together and give advice to pilots, it is obvious. If a warning comes from the systemTCASpilots must immediately follow instructions received.
Unfortunately, condolences could no longer console the parents of the Ufa children. Vitaly Kaloev was overcome by the idea that he must find the culprit for the disaster. To do this, he went to Zurich. On February 24, 2004, he went to Peter Nielsen's house and killed him.
Expert: The murder of a flight operator was very sad news. The worst thing is that he was not to blame for the disaster. The reason was the quality of the call center systems. The leaders were guiltySkyguide”, which did not provide dispatchers with the necessary equipment.
What made the tragedy inevitable?
- Firstly, Peter's colleagues went on vacation, leaving him alone.
- Secondly, engineers, by order of management, began repair work.
The dispatcher was unaware that many of the hazard warning systems were disabled. The need to land a passenger Airbus also played a role. Peter could not transfer the landing of the plane to someone else, since the phones did not work. Essentially, he was deprived of all technical support. Finally, when the Boeing 757 pilots began their descent, they were unable to tell the operator about the situation because all frequencies were occupied.
The investigation into this disaster took 22 months. Skyguide apologized to the families of the victims. However, many will never be able to forget the Uberlingen tragedy.
