Collision above lake Constance: a chronicle of the tragedy
15 years ago because of an error dispatch service cargo Boeing collided with a passenger Tu-154 in the sky over Germany.
The disaster killed 71 people: two pilots aboard a cargo “Boeing” of the German company DHL, as well as the crew and passengers of flight “the Bashkir airlines” — a total of 69 people including 52 children. The tragedy and the ensuing story of blood vengeance was the basis of several works of art.
How events unfolded the night of the collision, why most of the victims that night was not supposed to be in the sky and how was the investigation in the article “Izvestia”.
Random passengers
The bulk of passengers of the Tu-154 was a group of children from located in Bashkortostan specialized UNESCO school for gifted children. They all received a voucher for a holiday to Spain for a good education.
This group was supposed to fly the day before, but missed the flight. “The Bashkir airlines” at the request of accompanying a group travel company urgently organized for the group flight Charter. Tickets for this flight, the airline also offered to other passengers awaiting departure to Spain — were bought eight tickets. Three of them bought the family Kalievyh — 44-year-old Svetlana flew to Barcelona with children — four-year-old Diana and 10-year-old Bones.
In Spain, they waited for father, Vitaly Kaloyev, the former head of the construction Department in Vladikavkaz in 1999 under contract who went to Spain to work as an architect. The day before he handed over to the customer the next project. Svetlana with her children lived in North Ossetia, in Barcelona they flew via Moscow, where she bought a ticket on a flight “the Bashkir airlines”.
In addition to the first and second pilots, the crew was relying airline pilot 1st class, which this flight had the standard verification procedures to evaluate the actions of the FAC Board of Alexander gross. In the cabin besides the flight attendants were still three employees of the airline: Rakhmatullin Shamil, the aircraft Yuri Penzin and accompanying flight flight Manager Artem Gusev.
Late in the evening of 1 July, the aircraft was in the airspace over the German lake Constance — despite the fact that it was the territory of Germany, flight operations were transferred here private dispatch company “skajgajd” located in Switzerland.
Dispatch
On duty in the control center at this point was one person — 34-year-old Peter Nielsen. The second Manager with the consent of Nielsen in this moment went on hiatus, and in the care of Felix and the rest with him assistant left two dispatching terminal.
Furthermore, as subsequently has established a consequence, the part of the Supervisory equipment, which should inform managers about the dangerous proximity between aircraft, this night was for maintenance.
When it became clear that the planes are moving on intersecting courses, to draw the attention of colleagues in a dangerous situation tried a different Manager, who worked in Karlsruhe. He tried 11 times to contact him by phone, but one of the telephone line also was at the service, and the replacement has failed. For the same reason Sam Nielsen couldn’t ask for Friedrichshafen airport to take a third flight EN route delay. Negotiations with the commander of this aircraft several minutes before the crash won’t allow Nielsen to hear reports from the pilots of the Boeing and the Tu-154.
Nielsen himself noticed the convergence of two planes flying on a collision course, too late.
The first message to the commander of Tu-154 with the requirement to reduce the height he gave less than a minute before the collision.
However, at this time in the cockpit of the second plane is system triggered the collision warning TCAS-RA.
In the cockpit
TCAS was designed specifically to alert pilots about dangerous approaches in a situation when for some reasons this was not made by the Manager. For the system to work, it is necessary that the second plane also had its sensor, — then, each of the liners gets a consistent signal about the maneuver that must be performed in order to prevent a collision.
According to the international rules system needs to be equipped all aircraft licensed to carry 19 passengers or more. TCAS was installed on the Tu-154 and the German “Boeing”. But due to the fact that the Manager tried to prevent the collision too late, his orders came into conflict with the TCAS commands.
Almost immediately after Nielsen got in touch with the captain of the aircraft, “the Bashkir airlines” and demanded to descend, TCAS was transferred to the Russian liner the command to start the climb, and the German, on the contrary, can decrease. The commander of the “Boeing” did not receive any orders from Nielsen, fulfilled the command of the computer. The commander of the Tu-154 already performed a similar order Manager and the computer did not listen. The crew of a German cargo plane reported their actions on the ground, but Nielsen, occupied at this moment negotiations with the third Board, this message is not heard.
Two aircraft simultaneously moved to decrease on a collision course.
Broken necklace
The pilots of the Boeing and the Tu-154 saw each other in the last seconds — the planes collided at a right angle, with the tail stabilizer of the Boeing struck the middle of the fuselage of a passenger plane, causing him to apart in the air. Lost tail control “Boeing” lost control and also crashed to the ground.
The accident occurred at about 23.30 local time, but the first message began to arrive after midnight. The morning of July 2 about the incident he learned Vitaly Kaloyev, who expected his family to Barcelona. The same day he flew to Switzerland and from there went to the German town of überlingen, near which the crash occurred.
Telling police in the cordon that fallen plane were his wife and children, Kahlo joined the search operations at the crash site. He later told the National Geographic channel that he found his daughter, four-year-old Diana first saw her on the ground broken beads, then found the child’s body. This image formed the basis of the memorial, set on the scene and called a “Broken necklace”.
In the book “Crash”, also from the words of Vitaly Kaloeva, describes another version of events — during search operation it was brought to the place of detection of bodies for identification, where he saw lying at the side decoration.
Investigating the circumstances of the crash were engaged in the German Federal Bureau of accident investigations. In may 2004, was published the conclusion of the Bureau. It said that the clash is guilty of the dispatching company “skajgajd”, which failed to ensure the safety of air traffic and its Manager. In addition, the paper noted that the pilots of Tu-154 made a maneuver contrary to the requirements of the TCAS system, and the integration of the system itself was incomplete, its instructions were not standardized.
Airline “the Bashkir airlines” has also filed a lawsuit against the Federal Republic of Germany, in the airspace where the collision occurred. In 2006, the district court is located at lake Constance the city of Constance ruled that the transfer of control aircraft to a private company in the territory of another country, contrary to German law. The responsibility for the disaster, according to the court, lay on the Federal Republic of Germany. This decision was challenged by Germany, later the dispute between Germany and “the Bashkir airlines” has been settled out of court.
In September 2007 the court decision was rendered in the case of the eight employees of the company “skajgajd” — the four defendants were acquitted, four were found guilty of causing death by negligence. Three of them received suspended sentences, one was sentenced to a fine.
Murder
The first time the identity of the Manager, who was on duty at the time of the disaster, were not disclosed. Subsequently, the representatives of the company “skajgajd” told reporters that Peter Nielsen was deeply shocked by the tragedy. Shortly after the collision, he took a sabbatical in a few months returned to the company, but switched to office work and air traffic control never worked.
Almost two years after the disaster, however, until the publication of the official Commission’s findings in its investigation, on 24 February 2004 to his house went grey-haired man, dressed in all black, and tried to “attract attention” of the host. Nielsen, in whose house were his wife and three children, came to him. After a short conversation the man inflicted several knife wounds and disappeared from the scene.
Police immediately said that “does not exclude” version revenge Manager for the disaster on lake Constance, and the dispatching company to ascertain all the circumstances strengthened the protection of other employees. On suspicion in murder was soon detained Vitaly Kaloyev. Investigators, he said that he wanted to achieve from the Manager apologizing. According to Kaloeva, he showed him a picture of his deceased family, however, Nielsen knocked out a photograph from his hands and, according to some sources, he laughed. What happened after that, the researcher remembers.
The Film Is
5.3 Consequences
In October 2005, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to eight years in prison, in 2006 the sentence was reduced and in 2007, Kaloyev was released early for good behavior and sent to Russia. In North Ossetia Vitaly Kaloeva was greeted as a hero. A year later, in 2008, he was appointed Deputy construction Minister of the Republic.
“Collision” and “Consequences”
About the circumstances of the accident was filmed several documentary films in Russia and abroad.
In April 2017 in the US released a feature film “Consequences”, which laid the events of 2002-2004. The role of the protagonist, the prototype of which was Vitaly Kaloyev, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Himself Kaloev after the premiere criticized the film for inaccuracies and distortions.
Then, in April 2017, in Russia was published a book “the Clash: the Candid story of Vitaly Kaloeva”. In it with the words of Vitaly Kaloeva describes the circumstances of the search operations, and his last meeting with the Manager Nielsen.