"Clash": the story of Kaloev, who avenged the death of his family in a plane crash. The Unforgiven. The real story of Vitaliy Kaloev The father who killed the dispatcher

How did it all start?

On July 1, 2002, a Tu-154 aircraft flew from Moscow to Barcelona, ​​carrying 52 children (most of them are the best students of UNESCO special schools, winners of various competitions, children of civil servants and leaders educational institutions), flying on holiday to Spain.

Before that, they were late for their flight - and the Bashkir Airlines organized an additional one. Moreover, other late passengers were also offered to use this flight. As a result, eight burning tickets were sold three hours before departure. Among the buyers was economist Svetlana Kaloeva from Vladikavkaz, who, with her ten-year-old son Kostya and four-year-old daughter Diana, was going to visit her husband, architect Vitaly Kaloev, in Barcelona. They didn't see each other for nine months.

How did the collision over Lake Constance happen?

At 21.35 UTC, the Tu-154 collided in the air with a Boeing 747 flying from Bahrain to Brussels (there were no passengers on board, only two experienced pilots). The accident occurred near the small town of Iberlingen, near Lake Constance, and, despite the fact that both aircraft at that moment were over the territory of Germany, air traffic the Swiss company Skyguide operated, and only two (!) air traffic controllers worked at the control center in Zurich during the night shift.

When one of them went on a break, only 34-year-old Peter Nielsen and an assistant remained on duty. At the same time, Nielsen had to work simultaneously at two terminals. Since some of the equipment in the room was turned off, the controller noticed too late that the planes were dangerously close to each other. A minute before the collision, he tried to correct the situation and gave the instruction to the Tu-154 to descend, although the automatic warning system for dangerous rapprochements, on the contrary, recommended the pilots to climb. The Boeing 747 also went down, but Nielsen did not hear his message, and also made fatal mistake, telling the Tu-154 crew that the Boeing was on the right (when in fact it was on the left).

Seconds before the collision, the pilots of the planes saw each other and made a desperate attempt to prevent a catastrophe - but this did not save them. 69 people on the Tu-154 and two Boeing pilots were killed. At the same time, despite the fact that some fragments of the liners fell into the courtyards of residential buildings, fortunately, no one was injured on the ground.

What happened after the tragedy?

Two years later, a commission set up by the German Federal Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau determined the cause of the collision and pointed out the errors of the Skyguide management, which did not provide the control center with enough personnel for the night shift (and for a long time put up with the fact that only one controller controlled air traffic while his partner was resting). In addition, the equipment that was supposed to tell about a dangerous approach was turned off for maintenance. The telephone connection was also disconnected, and the backup telephone line was faulty.

The day after the tragedy, no one knew about all the details, but one desperate person had already flown from Barcelona to Zurich, and then to Germany - to Iberlingen. At first, the police did not let him into the crash site, but he managed to convince them that his wife and children were on board the Tu-154. As a result, the man's personal search was crowned with the fact that he first found the beads of his daughter Diana, and then her body. This man's name was Vitaly Kaloev, and the pearl necklace he found gave the name to the Broken Pearl String memorial, which was later installed at the site of the tragedy.

Who is Vitaly Kaloev?

Vitaly Kaloev is an architect from Vladikavkaz. Most youngest child in the family of Ossetian teachers. He graduated from school with honors, served in the army, entered the Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering, worked by profession. Until 1999, he headed the construction department in Vladikavkaz, until he signed a contract with one company and left for Spain to design houses.

© Igor Kubedinov / ITAR-TASS

Kaloev killed the dispatcher?

Then no one officially called Peter Nielsen the culprit of the collision, and Skyguide only temporarily suspended him from work and sent him to psychological rehabilitation, without even imposing penalties. A year after the tragedy, Kaloev arrived at the funeral ceremony in Iberlingen and, being in an excited state, terribly scared the head of Skyguide Alan Rosier. Then he went to the company's office, where he began to ask her employees if the dispatcher was to blame for what had happened, and to seek a meeting with Nielsen.

As a result, Kaloev received a photograph of the dispatcher at the Moscow detective agency, which he contacted after the disaster. On February 24, 2004, Kaloev appeared on the threshold of Nielsen's house, asked permission to enter and showed him pictures of his dead children so that he would apologize for what had happened. But, according to the architect, the dispatcher pushed him away, the photos fell to the ground - and then Kaloev "does not remember anything."

The court found that Kaloev struck Nielsen 12 knife wounds from which he died. The murder took place in the presence of the dispatcher's wife and his three children. Kaloev received eight years in a maximum security prison. However, after some time, the man repented and handed over the $150,000 compensation paid by the airline to the family of the dispatcher. Later, Kaloev was released ahead of schedule and returned to his homeland, where he was extremely warmly (almost like a hero) received at the airport, which contributed to the appearance of perplexed people.

Is Aftermath the first film to deal with this plane crash?

No, before this collision is over lake constance was covered in detail in two National Geographic television series ("Air Crash Investigations" and "Seconds to Disaster"), several documentaries and the TV movie "Flying in the Night - Disaster over Überlingen". It also formed the basis of a German film and even a Russian one.

In 2002, in a plane crash over Lake Constance, Vitaly 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 leading 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 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 the day of his 60th birthday, he received this highest award from the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania Dzhanaev Boris Borisovich.

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: a 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 Peter Nielsen, an employee of the Skyguide air traffic control company, ended in the murder of the controller on the threshold own house in the Swiss town of Kloten: twelve strokes with a penknife.

“I knocked. Nielsen is out Kaloev told reporters 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 is beautiful, with a cable car that spins observation deck and a restaurant - and the Valery Gergiev Caucasus Musical 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, otherwise it won't work. “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 prospecting work They tried to send me away, but it didn't work. 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 kind of hinted that I would like to erect a monument at the place where my girl fell, - instantly one German woman began to help, began 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 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 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 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, where most of the dead on that plane came 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.

In 2002, in a plane crash over Lake Constance, Vitaly Kaloev lost his family.
Due to an error by an employee of the Skyguide air traffic control company, two planes collided, 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 took the time to 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,” the website of the Ministry of Construction and Architecture of the republic reports. “On the day of his 60th birthday, he received this 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: a plane crash in July 2002 and what happened 478 days later," the profile site imdb.com points out.
The plane crash killed Vitaly's wife Svetlana and their children - eleven-year-old Konstantin and four-year-old Diana. 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.

“I knocked. Nielsen came out, - Kaloev told Komsomolskaya Pravda reporters in March 2005. - I first showed him with a gesture that he invited 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 me on the arm - 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.

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, kind 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 were 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 in the role of Viktor Schwarzenegger will reveal himself in a new way - not as "the last action hero", 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, 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 in time - who was, half was taken away: who fainted, who else.

The Germans, according to Vitaly, "are generally very sincere people, simple." “I kind of 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,” says Kaloev. And then he returns to the days of the search: “I put my hands on the ground - I tried to understand where the soul remained: in this place, in the earth - or flew away somewhere. He waved his hands - some roughness. He began to get - 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 and 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 - 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: “I appointed him 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 go to Aman Tuleev, the governor of the Kemerovo region: “Three or four times he simply gave money, 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 released me, they said that I could take 15 kilograms with me. I went through the letters, put away the envelopes - all the same, one mail is more than twenty kilos. They looked, they said: “Okay, take both mail and things.”

“The Swiss deported Kaloev quietly and imperceptibly.
“I arrived, I did not expect that I would be so warmly welcomed in Moscow. Maybe it was superfluous - but in any case it was nice, ”says Vitaly Kaloev eight years later.

“You can’t teach how to live after this,” he assures when it comes to the relatives of those killed in the 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. - I know, after all, 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 - that’s all, 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, where most of the dead on that plane came from, is from Ossetia, Ossetia is from central Russia,” Vitaly says. - They meant, of course, to bring 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.

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.

Upon learning of the plane crash, Kaloev bought a ticket to Überlingen. The pain in the eyes of the strange Russian was so great that the employees of the German services allowed him to take part in search operations.

The first thing he found was his daughter's broken beads. Today, near the German town of Überlingen, a monument in the form of a broken pearl string rises. This is the memory of Diana Kaloeva and other passengers of the TU-154M.

“At ten in the morning I was at the scene of the tragedy,” Kaloev testifies. - I saw all these bodies - I froze in tetanus, 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. ”

“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 in time - who was, half was taken away: who fainted, who else.

“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 - 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.

Revenge

Vitaliy Kaloev tried in vain to achieve justice. He repeatedly demanded explanations from the employees of the Swiss company SkyGuide, but they only offered him financial compensation. With the help of private detectives, he learned the address of the man who was at the control room that evening. Arrived in Zurich, found the right house, knocked on the door.

“I knocked. Nielsen came out, Kaloev told Komsomolskaya Pravda reporters in March 2005. - I first showed him with a gesture that he invited 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 - the pictures flew. And it started there."

“He had more chances to survive than my children,” Kaloev later recalled. Perhaps everything would have been different if Nielsen had listened to him and asked for forgiveness ... It was not difficult for the police to find the killer. Having inflicted 12 stab wounds on the Swiss, Kaloev returned to the hotel. He could have run away, but he didn't.

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.

About the family of Peter Nielsen, where three children remained, Vitaly said the following: “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?"

Fifteen years have passed since the tragedy occurred in the skies over Germany. The 2002 plane crash over Lake Constance claimed the lives of 71 single people, most of whom were children.

plane crash

The plane crash occurred in 2002 on the night of the first to the second of July in the area of ​​Lake Constance in the sky over Germany. The collision of two aircraft claimed the lives of 19 adults and 52 children. Almost all the victims are passengers of the Russian Tu-154m airliner, on which the children flew on vacation to Spain. The plane belonged to the Bashkir Airlines, it was on a charter flight from Moscow to Spain (Barcelona).

The second aircraft involved in the collision, a Boeing-757 of the international air transportation company HDL, was traveling from Italy (Bergamo) to Belgium (Brussels). On board the Tu-154M were 57 passengers, of which only five were adults, and 52 were children, as well as 12 crew members.

Airplane passengers

Many children were among those killed in the 2002 plane crash over Lake Constance. This is due to the fact that they flew to rest in Spain. Talented students were rewarded with a trip for high academic achievements. The UNESCO Committee provided vouchers for Bashkir children.

random events

Already after the collision over Lake Constance, it was found out that the event was preceded by a whole series of fatal accidents, which could have been ignored if there had been no trouble. Bashkir children were not supposed to fly at all that night. By chance, the accompanying adults brought them to the wrong airport. Instead of Domodedovo, from where their plane flew to Barcelona, ​​they ended up in Sheremetyevo. Naturally, they missed their flight.

Many schoolchildren who went on vacation were children of high-ranking officials. So, for example, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the head of the administration under the President of Bashkiria, Leysan Gimaeva, was on board.

If the group included children from ordinary families, then surely they would have just gone home, missing the plane. Schoolchildren, of course, would be disappointed, but they would still be alive.

However, events developed in a completely different scenario. Influential parents decided to send a Bashkir Airlines plane to Moscow, which charter flight could send the children to Spain. The head of the crew of the airliner was Alexander Gross, who had previously flown to Barcelona and knew the route perfectly.

After the schoolchildren boarded the plane, it turned out that there were several more empty seats available. It was decided at lightning speed to sell these seven tickets. So gradually the number of future victims increased.

Four tickets were purchased by the Shislovsky family from Belarus, who missed their flight, and therefore were forced to fly another one. Three more tickets went to a resident of North Ossetia, Svetlana Kaloeva with two children, who flew to her husband Vitaly, who worked under a contract in Spain. After the collision over Lake Constance, the names of random passengers were not immediately clarified.

How it was...

On the fateful night before the plane crash over Lake Constance, both subsequently colliding airliners were in the sky above Germany itself, but for some reason the leadership of their movement was transferred to the Swiss company Skynide, 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 had to track two terminals at once.

When the controller noticed something was wrong, the liners were already in line at a distance of 36,000 feet, which meant that only seconds remained before the collision. Why the duty officer discovered the problem so late is unknown, but a plane crash over Lake Constance was already almost inevitable. However, in this situation, one could try to do something to save the situation. But, unfortunately, Peter Nelson got it completely wrong. Either he was not ready for such emergency situations, or he was simply confused ... But his erroneous commands led to the death of many people.

Incorrect dispatcher commands

When Peter Nelson realized that the courses of the liners intersect, and they are inexorably approaching each other, he tried to correct the situation. That is why he gave the command to the Russian plane to go down. It is worth noting that at this moment the crew itself noticed the approach of the other side from the left side. The pilots were ready to perform a maneuver in order to disperse safely.

However, after the command of the ground controller on board Russian aircraft the automatic TCAS system has been activated, which warns of the danger of rapprochement. So, she informed about the need to climb.

At the same time, an identical system worked on the Boeing, prompting the pilots to climb. Perhaps the catastrophe could have been avoided if these commands had been carried out on both aircraft. The co-pilot of the Russian airliner immediately noticed a discrepancy between the commands of the dispatcher and TCAS, which he immediately informed the rest of the team. But I received an answer that ground commands would be carried out. Moreover, the order to decline was received again.

Whose mistake caused the tragedy?

It is difficult to blame the pilots in the plane crash over Lake Constance, because they followed the commands from the ground, as the instructions prescribe. Later, the investigation will establish the cause of the disaster - the untimely command of the dispatcher Peter Nielsen. He gave erroneous information to the Russian pilots that there was a board to their right. Deciphering the black boxes showed that the team was simply misled. The pilots, relying on the dispatcher, considered that there was another aircraft to their right, which the TCAS system did not detect, because it is no secret that ground-based installations provide more accurate data, and on-board instruments can 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 officer. It remains a mystery why none of the pilots informed Peter Nielsen that his team contradicted the reports. automatic system security. Perhaps there just wasn't enough time for it.

Aircraft collision

After the dispatcher's command, an air crash over Lake Constance was inevitable. Both liners went down. The Russian board at the same time carried out the command of Peter Nielsen, and the Boeing worked 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 teams, since they both communicated at the same time on different frequencies. And if at that time there were several people on duty in the control room, as it should be, the information would be heard in time.

In the last seconds before the plane crash over Lake Constance, the pilots of the two planes, as best they could, tried to avoid the collision by deflecting the controls. However, their attempts were in vain. The collision of the liners occurred almost at a right angle. An HDL cargo plane crashed into a Russian one, causing the Tu-154M to split in half at a ten-kilometer altitude. The wreckage of the liner fell apart into four parts, scattered in the vicinity of the town of Iberlingen. And the remains of the Boeing were found seven kilometers from the Russian airliner.

Air crash investigation

The tragedy over Lake Constance caused lengthy investigations. Since the disaster occurred over Germany, the German Federal Office was involved in the investigation. The commission's first conclusions were given only two years later.

The report presented the following reasons for the plane crash over Lake Constance involving Tu-154 and Boeing:

1. The air traffic controller failed to properly ensure the separation of the liners in time.
2. The instruction for the descent was given too late.

Subsequently, all charges were dropped from the pilots.

In the course of the investigation, a number of other circumstances were clarified. As it turned out, the telephone communication equipment and the automatic notification of the approach of the liners of the mission control center were turned off for unknown reasons. The backup telephone lines also did not work. A more responsible dispatcher from the city of Karlsruhe in Germany noticed the approach of the planes and repeatedly tried to get through to 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 investigating authorities organized a criminal investigation against it.

The results of the disaster

Immediately after the crash, the Skyguide company blamed the pilots of the Russian airliner for the events. According to them, the crew carried out the commands incorrectly, because they did not understand the instructions of the dispatcher to English language. Only in 2004 did the German Federal Office publish the official conclusion of the results of the investigation. According to the conclusion, the dispatcher from Skyguide was responsible for the collision. Only after the publication of the results of the investigation, the company admitted its guilt. Only two years later, the director of the company bothered to apologize to the families of those who died that terrible night. And on May 19, 2004, Joseph Deiss (President of Sweden) sent an official document to Vladimir Putin apologizing for what had happened.

And only in December 2006, Alain Rossier resigned from his position as director of Skyguide.

And in September 2007, the court in the Swiss town of Bülach convicted four Skyguide employees of negligence in their duties, which led to the tragedy. IN total Eight people who worked for the Swiss company appeared before the court. The defendants refused to admit their guilt, shifting all responsibility to Peter Nielsen, who had already died at that time. And yet, four managers were found guilty of manslaughter by the court.

All of them were given different punishments. Three workers were given only suspended sentences, and one was given only a fine.

Consequences of the 2002 disaster

After the crash of the planes, the series of troubles did not end. Heartbroken relatives could not stand the tests that fell on them, some families broke up after the tragedy. The tragedy took a lot of 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, the lists were supplemented by another surname - 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, he pleaded guilty to Kaloev, sentencing him to eight years in prison. However, given the severe 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, Kaloev was released for good behavior, after which he returned to North Ossetia.

Memorial to the dead

At the site of the tragedy in 2004, a memorial was erected to those who died in a plane crash over Lake Constance - a broken string of pearls symbolizes the scattered wreckage of the aircraft. 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 the 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 building of the Skyguide company, a stone and glass monument was erected in the form of a spiral, along which 72 candles are located, symbolizing 71 victims of the disaster and one dispatcher.

Disaster film

The terrible tragedy and its further consequences, as well as the act of Vitaliy 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 now his pregnant wife and daughter are finally flying to him. That is why a monument to three will be erected on the grave ... As in real history, 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 home with a knife and everything happens according to the same scenario as in real life. Only some details are changed by the director, who managed to convey on the screen the incredible experiences of the protagonist.