Kaloev biography. The Unforgiven. The real story of Vitaly Kaloev. "The Man with the Black Beard"

Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev. Born on January 15, 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (now Vladikavkaz). The killer of air traffic controller Peter Nielsen, responsible for the death of the Kaloyev family in a plane crash over Lake Constance on July 1, 2002.

Vitaly Kaloev was born in 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (now Vladikavkaz) into a family of teachers.

Father worked as a school teacher Ossetian language, mother is a kindergarten teacher.

Was youngest child in the family, had two brothers and three sisters.

He graduated from high school with honors. He studied at a construction college and served in the army. After leaving the reserve, he entered the Faculty of Architecture and Construction of the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute. At the same time, he worked as a foreman at a construction site.

After graduating from the institute, he qualified as an architect. He took part in the construction of the Sputnik military camp near Vladikavkaz, intended for the residence of Soviet officers whose units were being withdrawn from the GDR.

During the perestroika years of the 1980s, Kaloev assembled a construction cooperative.

Until 1999, Kaloev was the head of the construction department in Vladikavkaz.

In 1999 he entered into a contract with construction company and went to Spain, where he worked as an architect - he designed houses for people from Ossetia.

In 1991, Kaloev married Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva (born 1958). Svetlana graduated from the Faculty of Economics of SOGU in 1983, receiving a degree in economics. She made a career, going from an ordinary bank employee to the head of a department. For some time she worked as director of the commercial bank Adamon Bank. At the time of the meeting with Kaloev and right up to the disaster, Svetlana worked as an economist and deputy director for finance at the Daryal brewery.

In the marriage, the Kaloevs had two children - son Konstantin (born on November 19, 1991 in Vladikavkaz, was named after his paternal grandfather) and daughter Diana (born on March 7, 1998 in the same place, the name was chosen by Konstantin). Konstantin studied at Vladikavkaz school No. 5, where he managed to complete five classes. He was interested in paleontology and astronautics.

Death of the family of Vitaly Kaloev

By July 2002, Kaloev had already been working in Spain for two years. He completed the construction of a cottage near Barcelona, ​​handed over the object to the customer and waited for his family, whom he had not seen for nine months. Svetlana and her children had already arrived in Moscow by that time, but could not buy a plane ticket and only three hours before departure at the airport she was offered last-minute tickets to board the same Bashkir Airlines plane that later crashed in the sky above Lake Constance.

Collision over Lake Constance- a major aviation accident that occurred on July 1, 2002.

The Bashkir Airlines (BAL) Tu-154M airliner, operating flight BTC 2937 on the Moscow-Barcelona route, collided in the air with a DHL Boeing 757-200PF cargo aircraft, operating flight DHX 611 on the Bahrain-Bergamo-Brussels route. The collision occurred near small town Uberlingen around Lake Constance(Germany). All 71 people on board both planes were killed - 2 on the Boeing (both pilots) and 69 on the Tu-154 (9 crew members and 60 passengers, including 52 children).

Despite the fact that both planes were over German territory, control air traffic in this place was carried out by a private Swiss company "Skyguide". At the control center located in Zurich, only two air traffic controllers worked on the night shift. Shortly before the collision, one of the dispatchers went on a break; only the 34-year-old dispatcher remained on duty Peter Nielsen (German: Peter Nielsen), who was forced to work simultaneously at two terminals, and an assistant.

Some of the control tower equipment was turned off, and Nielsen noticed too late that two aircraft, located at the same flight level FL360 (11,000 meters), were dangerously approaching. Less than a minute before their courses were supposed to intersect, he tried to correct the situation and gave the crew of Flight 2937 the command to descend.

At this point, the Tu-154 pilots had not yet seen the Boeing approaching from the left, but were prepared for the fact that they would have to perform a maneuver to diverge from it. Therefore, they began to descend immediately after receiving the dispatcher's command (in fact, even before it was completed). However, immediately after this, a command was heard in the cockpit automatic system proximity warning system (TCAS), informing about the need to gain altitude. At the same time, the pilots of flight 611 received instructions from the same system to descend.

One of the crew members of flight 2937 (co-pilot Itkulov) drew the attention of the others to the TCAS command, and was told that the controller had given the command to descend. Because of this, no one confirmed receipt of the command (although the plane was already descending). A few seconds later, Nielsen repeated the command, this time its receipt was immediately confirmed. At the same time, he mistakenly reported incorrect information about another aircraft, saying that it was to the right of the Tu-154. As subsequent flight recorder transcripts revealed, some of the pilots of Flight 2937 were misled by this message and may have believed that there was another aircraft not visible on the TCAS screen. The Tu-154 continued to descend following instructions from the controller rather than TCAS. None of the pilots informed the dispatcher about the contradiction in the received commands.

At the same time, Flight 611 was descending in compliance with TCAS instructions. As soon as possible, the pilots reported this to Nielsen. The controller did not hear this message due to the fact that another aircraft simultaneously contacted him on a different frequency.

In the last seconds, the pilots of both planes saw each other and tried to prevent a collision by completely deflecting the controls, but this did not help. At 21:35:32, flights BTC 2937 and DHX 611 collided almost at right angles at an altitude of 10,634 meters (FL350). The Boeing's vertical tail stabilizer hit the fuselage of the Tu-154 and broke it in half. While falling, the Tu-154 broke into four parts in the air, which fell in the vicinity of Uberlingen. The Boeing, which had lost its stabilizer, lost control and, having lost both engines during the fall, at 21:37 crashed to the ground 7 kilometers from the Tu-154 and was completely destroyed. Everyone on board both planes (69 people on the Tu-154 and 2 on the Boeing) were killed. Despite the fact that some debris from both liners fell on residential buildings (in their courtyards), no one died on the ground...

On July 2, 2002, having learned about what had happened, Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and from there to Germany to Uberlingen, where the disaster occurred. At first, the police did not want to let Vitaly into the crash site, but when he explained that his wife and children were there, they let him through.

According to Vitaly, his daughter Diana was found three kilometers from the plane crash site. According to documentary film National Geographic channel Kaloev himself participated in search work and found first Diana’s torn beads, and then her body.

All three were buried in Vladikavkaz.

Murder of dispatcher Peter Nielsen by Vitaly Kaloev

In the summer of 2003, Kaloev, together with Yulia Fedotova, the mother of another girl who died in a plane crash, came to Skyguide Airlines. According to company employees, during a funeral ceremony in Uberlingen dedicated to the anniversary of the plane crash, “one of the relatives - a man with a black beard” - behaved very “excitedly” and terribly frightened the head of the company, Allen Rosier. After which this person allegedly came to the Skyguide office, where, while communicating with the company’s employees, he asked several times: “Is the dispatcher to blame for what happened?” and sought a meeting with Peter Nielsen, who was at the control panel that evening.

On February 24, 2004, Peter Nielsen was killed. The murder took place on Nielsen's doorstep in the presence of his wife and three children. The main version of the murder considered by the Swiss police was Kaloev’s revenge. Kaloev himself did not admit his guilt, but he did not deny it either - when testifying, he stated that he only remembers that he came to Nielsen, showed him photographs of his family and demanded an apology. Nilsen hit Kaloyev on the hand and knocked out the photographs, after which Kaloyev, in his words, suffered a memory loss.

Vitaly Kaloev about the circumstances of Nielsen’s murder:

In an interview with journalists, Kaloev spoke about how and why he killed dispatcher Nielsen.

“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: “Ich 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, offended She 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 photographs flew... And away they went,” said Kaloev.

“I don’t remember anymore. I lost my temper. I lost my mind when the photographs fell... I don’t remember what I did,” he said. Kaloev did not deny that he killed the dispatcher, but he also does not admit his guilt: he stubbornly repeats that he was in a state of passion and does not remember anything.

“A year ago I said that I went to Nilsen, talked with him, and I don’t remember what happened next. I didn’t hide anything. And according to the evidence that they showed me, it turns out that I killed him. There are particles of clothing on my clothes Nielsen, traces of blood and something else. There is also his blood on the knife. They didn’t say anything about my fingerprints. But they found some particles of my clothes in the knife. I don’t know what really happened,” Kaloev said.

Kaloev repeated that he did not repent at all of what he had done. “Peter Nielsen was rewarded for his behavior. In addition to him, SkyGuide director Alain Rossier should also be rewarded,” said Kaloev.

“How should I feel sorry for him? You see, it didn’t make me any better that he died. My children didn’t return,” he noted.

Kaloev refused to recognize the Swiss court. “That’s what I told them: the Swiss court means nothing to me. For me, the court of my children is higher. If they could, they would say that I really loved them, that I didn’t leave them, I didn’t allow them to disappear without a trace.” ", concluded Kaloev.

On October 26, 2005, Kaloev was found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison. On November 8, 2007, by a court decision, he was released for good behavior after serving part of his sentence. On November 13, Kaloev arrived in North Ossetia, where he was warmly greeted at the airport.

According to a number of Russian media reports, on August 9, 2008, on the second day of the war in South Ossetia, Vitaly Kaloev was spotted among the militia in Java. Later, his brother confirmed that Vitaly was indeed in South Ossetia at that time, but his presence was connected with the construction of the Zaramagskaya hydroelectric station, and that he returned home that same night.

In North Ossetia, Kaloev was appointed Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Policy of the republic. On the day of his sixtieth birthday he retired, a few days before he was awarded the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia”.

Vitaly Kaloev in the program "Live"

Vitaly Kaloev now:

In 2014, Vitaly married for the second time, his wife’s name is Irina. Taimuraz Mansurov, the former head of North Ossetia and a friend of Kaloyev, told reporters about this. But he refused to elaborate: “This is not a topic for discussion with us. My wife - good woman, takes care of him. They are together. What happens next is none of my business. He lives in the same house as before the tragedy."

On December 25, 2018, it became known that Vitaly Kaloev became the father of twins. He had a son and daughter. The author of the biographical book of Kaloyev, Ksenia Kaspari, reported this on Facebook. “Yes, four hours ago Irina gave birth to twins - a son and a daughter. It was a surprise for me that it would be twins. My wife and I have not yet decided what to name the children. There are options, but we’ll see,” said Kaloev.

The image of Vitaly Kaloev in the cinema:

A film was made based on the events with the participation of Vitaly Kaloev "Aftermath". The role of Kaloev was played by. The film was directed by Elliott Lester. The film also stars Scoot McNairy, Maggie Grace and Martin Donovan.

In 2017, director Sarik Andreasyan made a film in which he played the role of Kaloyev.

Director Sarik Andreasyan noted: “Our film is about the fact that parents should not bury their children. As a father, I know very well what love for family is - it was with this feeling that I made the movie. I wanted to pay tribute to the whole story, to its main character. Our film is not just about a person - it is about history, about loss and loneliness.”

The American rock band Delta Spirit recorded the song "Ballad of Vitaly", which is the final work in their album " History from Below".

German futurepop group Edge of Dawn hints at the story of Vitaly Kaloev in their song “The Flight (Lux)”.

Vitaly Kaloev is a man who instantly lost his entire family in a plane crash. He took revenge for the death of people close to him and returned to life again, creating new family.

Biography of Vitaly Kaloev

Vitaly owes his birth to his parents, teachers. He was born as the last, sixth child. Before him, the family consisted of two brothers and three sisters. His hometown is Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz).

Of the six children, Vitaly was the smartest; from the age of five he learned to read and re-read many books. He graduated from school with honors, entered a construction college, and served in the army. After serving in the army, he continued his studies at the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute at the Faculty of Architecture and Construction. He combined his studies with work at a construction site, as a foreman. Received a diploma in architecture. He helped build the Sputnik military camp near Vladikavkaz, for Soviet military personnel whose units were being withdrawn from the GDR.

During perestroika, Vitaly created a construction cooperative. Until 1990, he served as head of the construction department of Vladikavkaz. According to a contract concluded with a Spanish construction company in 1990, he went to Spain as an architect to design houses for immigrants from Ossetia.

Family of Vitaly Kaloev

In 1991, Vitaly married Svetlana Gagieva (born in 1958). After graduating from SOGU in 1983, Svetlana received a degree in economics. Svetlana’s career began successfully from an ordinary bank employee to the head of a department. At one time she occupied the chair of director of the commercial bank Adamon Bank. When she met Kaloev, she worked as deputy director for finance at the Daria brewery.

Vitaly and Svetlana had two children - a boy and a girl. Son Konstantin was born on November 19, 1991, daughter Diana on March 7, 1998. Konstantin was attracted to space, and he devoted a lot of time to it; he was also interested in paleontology. Before the disaster, he managed to complete five classes in high school No. 5 Vladikavkaz.

Tragedy over Lake Constance

In 2002, Kaloev had already devoted himself to Spain for two years. That year he completed the construction of a cottage near Barcelona and was awaiting the arrival of his family, whom he had not seen for 9 months.

For a trip to Spain, Vitaly’s family came to Moscow to buy plane tickets and fly to to a loved one, but it didn’t work out in any way. After three hours of torment, Svetlana was offered last-minute tickets to board a Bashkir Airlines plane, which, due to an error by the air traffic controller, crashed in the sky over Lake Constance.

Having heard about the tragedy, Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and then to Uberlingen (Germany), where this sad event took place. Police were at the scene of the plane crash. They did not want to let Vitaly go to the scene until he explained to them about the death of his wife and two children.

There, near Lake Constance, three kilometers from the plane crash, Vitaly found the body of his daughter Diana, and ten days later the bodies of his wife and son.

Air traffic controller Peter Nielsen in the life of Vitaly Kaloev

On that ill-fated day in 2002, Peter Nilsson and his partner were at the aircraft control panel. The partner left the console for a while and handed over control to Peter. Some of the equipment was not working at that moment. And at the same time, two planes (cargo and passenger) were moving in the sky towards each other. Airplane pilots in flight are guided both by automation and by the actions of the dispatcher; the dispatcher’s word is decisive. At that moment, listening to the words of the dispatcher was a mistake, which led to an inevitable disaster. On July 2, 2002, 71 people died, most of them children.

Vitaly Kaloev repeatedly contacted the Swiss airline with a request for an apology from the company and directly from Peter Nilsson to all the relatives of the victims. But the company did not heed his request. Peter Nilsson was transferred to another location after the disaster.

Vitaly, with the help of a detective, found the dispatcher’s place of residence and approached him with a request for an apology. To which I received a refusal. Vitaly’s cup of patience was already full; he mortally wounded Peter with fourteen blows of a knife.

A Swiss court sentenced Vitaly Kaloev to eight years in prison; for exemplary behavior, he was released ahead of schedule.

Upon leaving prison, Vitaly took his things and letters, weighing 20 kg, which his admirers wrote to him, supporting him in difficult times.

Return of Vitaly Kaloev to his homeland

After imprisonment, Vitaly returned to his homeland in North Ossetia. Accepted the leadership post of Deputy Minister of Construction and Architecture. While occupying this post, he helped people in every possible way who needed help. He succeeded 40-50 percent.

In 2016, he left the leadership position due to retirement.

13 years after terrible tragedy Vitaly remarried. New wife name is Irina, the wedding took place according to the tradition of Ossetia. According to Vitaly, if there was an Ossetian wedding, then that’s it. They just go to the registry office to get a stamp. All relatives gather at the wedding.

In April, the film “Aftermath” will be released with Arnold Schwarzenegger about the Russian Vitaly Kaloyev, whose family died in a plane crash over Lake Constance in 2002. 478 days after the tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev killed an air traffic controller, because of whose mistake his wife and two children died.

In July 2002, Russian architect Vitaly Kaloev worked in Spain. He completed the construction of a cottage near Barcelona, ​​handed over the object to the customer and waited for his family, whom he had not seen for nine months. Svetlana and her children, 11-year-old son Konstantin and 4-year-old daughter Diana, could not buy a plane ticket. And only three hours before departure at the airport she was offered last-minute tickets on board that same plane.

At this point, the Tu-154 pilots had not yet seen the Boeing approaching from the left, but were prepared for the fact that they would have to perform a maneuver to diverge from it. Therefore, they began to descend immediately after receiving the dispatcher's command (in fact, even before it was completed). However, immediately after this, a command from the automatic proximity warning system (TCAS) sounded in the cockpit, informing about the need to gain altitude. At the same time, the pilots of flight 611 received instructions from the same system to descend.

One of the crew members drew the attention of the others to the TCAS command, and he was told that the controller had given the command to descend. Because of this, no one confirmed receipt of the command (although the plane was already descending). A few seconds later, Nielsen repeated the command, this time its receipt was immediately confirmed. At the same time, he mistakenly reported incorrect information about another aircraft, saying that it was to the right of the Tu-154. As subsequent flight recorder transcripts revealed, some of the pilots of Flight 2937 were misled by this message and may have believed that there was another aircraft not visible on the TCAS screen. The Tu-154 continued to descend following instructions from the controller rather than TCAS. None of the pilots informed the dispatcher about the contradiction in the received commands.

At the same time, Flight 611 was descending in compliance with TCAS instructions. As soon as possible, the pilots reported this to Nielsen. The controller did not hear this message due to the fact that another aircraft simultaneously contacted him on a different frequency.

In the last seconds, the pilots of both planes saw each other and tried to prevent a collision by completely deflecting the controls, but this did not help.

The police did not want to let Vitaly into the crash site, but when he explained that his wife and children were there, they let him in. According to Vitaly, his daughter Diana was found three kilometers from the plane crash site. Kaloev himself participated in the search work and first found Diana’s torn beads, and then her body.

At ten in the morning I was at the scene of the tragedy. I saw all these bodies - I froze in tetanus and could not move. A village near Uberlingen, the school had its headquarters there. And nearby, at an intersection, as it turned out later, my son fell. I still can’t forgive myself for driving nearby and not feeling anything, not recognizing him.

On February 22, 2004, his attempt to talk to air traffic controller Peter Nielsen ended with the controller being killed on the doorstep own home in the Swiss town of Kloten: twelve blows with a penknife.

I knocked. Nielsen left. I first motioned for him to invite me into the house. But he slammed the door. I called again and told him: Ich bin Russland. I remember these words from school. He said nothing. 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, I was offended. Even my eyes filled with tears. I extended my hand to him with the photographs a second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped me on the hand and the pictures flew off. And away we go.

Kaloyev was released early - in November 2008. When leaving prison, the first thing Vitaly Kaloev said was: “Why do I need this freedom now?”

Vitaly Kaloev 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. Thirteen years after the tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev got married.

I think that I lived my life in vain: I could not save my family. What depended on me is the second question,” admitted Vitaly Kaloev. - You can’t learn to live after this... I still haven’t recovered. But there is no need to give up. If you need to cry, cry, but it’s better to do it alone: ​​no one saw me with tears, I didn’t show them anywhere. Maybe, maybe on the very first day. We must live with the destiny that is destined for us. Live and help people.

Trailer for the film “Consequences”

• Immediately after the disaster, the Swiss company Skyguide placed all the blame on the Russian pilots, who, in its opinion, poorly understood the dispatcher’s instructions in English. In May 2004, the German Federal Office for Aircraft Accident Investigation published a conclusion on the results of its investigation into the crash. Experts admitted that the dispatchers were to blame for the collision. Only after the publication of the report did Skyguide admit its mistakes, and two years after the disaster, its director Alain Rossier apologized to the families of the victims.

In 2016, Vitaly Kaloev was detained at Munich airport. He was flying to participate in mourning events on the occasion of the death of a Tu-154 aircraft over Lake Constance on July 2, 2002. It turned out that the Swiss side protested against allowing Kaloyev to attend the ceremony.

• According to Kaloev, the creators of the film “Consequences” did not consult with him; he himself has not seen the film, but plans to watch it. “They took it off and took it off. What is there to react? The main thing is that nothing is distorted. Otherwise there will be action with a chase. I wasn't hiding from anyone. He came openly and left openly,” Kaloev said.

In July 2002, the Bashkir Airlines Tu-154, on which the Kaloev family was flying, collided in the air with a Boeing 757 cargo plane. The disaster, in which more than 70 people died (including 52 children), occurred near Lake Constance in Germany.

The reason was the incorrect actions of the 34-year-old dispatcher of the Swiss airline Skyguide (translated from English as “sky guide”) Peter Nielsen, who regulated air traffic in the area - gave commands to the pilots. Due to inattention or fatigue, he realized too late that the planes’ courses could intersect, and then with his mistakes, confusing right and left, he made the situation irreversible.

However, the management of Skyguide from the very beginning began to deny their guilt, hinting that everything happened because the Russian pilots allegedly did not know English. Nielsen also did not admit guilt.

Air traffic controller Peter Nielsen (1968-2004)

The meeting between Kaloev and Nielsen became fatal for both - the Ossetian stabbed the dispatcher to death, and he himself ended up in a Swiss prison.

After the death of his family in 2002, Kaloev plunged into his grief and his relatives believed that he would never return to his former life. How does the Ossetian avenger live today? Did the death of Peter Nielsen bring him relief?

“What would you do if you saw your children in a coffin?” - this question was once asked to journalists by the elder brother of Vitaly Kaloev, a man who became almost folk hero North Ossetia.

"AiF" told something new in this story.

Plane crash over Lake Constance

A person who avenged the death of loved ones is an extraordinary person. In the 90s, he headed the construction department in Vladikavkaz. Here, in his hometown, Kaloev on own funds built a temple - he believed: this must be done in order to protect children from harm. He got married in 1991. In the same year, a son, Konstantin, was born, and seven years later, a daughter, Diana, was born.

Vitaly Kaloev with a South Ossetian militia in Java. August 9, 2008 Photo: AiF / Vladimir Kozhemyakin

Kaloev became a father late - he took this issue very seriously. That’s why he first built a house, planted a tree, and then gave birth to a son. He lived together with his wife Svetlana for 11 years. Son Kostya was 10, daughter Diana was 4 years old. He himself turned 46 at the time of the disaster. In July 2002, Vitaly Kaloev was in Spain. I completed a major construction project in Barcelona and was expecting a family. My wife Svetlana was unable to book tickets for a long time; she and her children spent three hours at the Moscow airport. And only at the last minutes I purchased last-minute tickets for the ill-fated plane.

Kaloev was buying sweets for children in a supermarket at the moment when a Boeing cargo plane crashed into the fuselage of a Russian airliner. The plane, which was carrying 52 children, disintegrated in the air.

The crash site of the Tu-154M plane. Photo: Reuters

Vitaly Kaloev speaks more modestly and harshly about personal achievements:

Having learned about the plane crash, Kaloev bought a plane ticket to Uberlingen. The pain in the eyes of the strange Russian was so great that the German services allowed him to take part in the search work.

The first thing he found was his daughter's broken beads. Today, near the German town of Uberlingen, there stands a monument in the shape of a broken string of pearls. This is in 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 and could not move. A village near Uberlingen, the school had its headquarters there. And nearby, at an intersection, as it turned out later, my son fell. I still can’t forgive myself for driving nearby and not feeling anything, not recognizing him.”

“My instincts became sharper to the point that I began to understand what the Germans were talking about among themselves, without knowing the language. I wanted to participate in the search work - they tried to send me away, but it didn’t work. They gave us an area further away where there were no bodies. I found some things, plane wreckage. I understood then, and I understand now, that they were right. They really couldn’t gather the required number of policemen in time - who was there, they took away half of them: some fainted, some did something 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 to where. I moved my hands - some roughness. He began to take out the glass beads that were on her neck. I started collecting it and then showed it to people. Later, one architect made a common monument there - with a torn string of beads.”

Revenge

Vitaly Kaloev tried in vain to achieve justice. He more than once demanded an explanation from the employees of the Swiss company SkyGuide, but they only offered him financial compensation: to his parents for dead child- 50 thousand francs, spouse for spouse - 60 thousand, child for parent - 40 thousand. Children (and children) - cheaper...

“I didn’t even look at it. Money in exchange for memory?! I realized: they don’t consider us people! It’s like during an investigation, when they deliberately provoke detainees... The local prosecutor told me politely, without putting words into the protocol: “Here, in Switzerland, raising a child under 10 years old costs 200 thousand francs. And the lives of children themselves have no value here at all.” He was waiting for me to explode, saying, it turns out that your children are priceless, but mine are not even worth asking for forgiveness for their death? But I didn't do it."

Then Kaloev showed another letter from Skyguide’s lawyers, in which he was notified that the company had nothing to apologize to him for: “And Rossier did not apologize either. If he had apologized, nothing would have happened.”

Vitaly Kaloev among the militias. August 9, 2008 Photo: AiF / Vladimir Kozhemyakin

At the trial in Switzerland, Kaloev repeated the same thing. He approached Rossier and other Skyguide managers, asking the same question: who is to blame? He never heard an answer.

With the help of private detectives, he found out the address of the person who was at the control panel that evening. I arrived in Zurich, found the right house, and knocked on the door.

“I knocked. “Nilsen came out,” Kaloev told reporters, “ Komsomolskaya Pravda“ in March 2005. “I first motioned for him to invite me into the house.” But he slammed the door. I called again and told him: Ich bin Russland. I remember these words from school. He said nothing. 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, I was offended. Even my eyes filled with tears. The second time I extended my hand with the photographs to him and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped my hand and the photographs flew off. And it started from 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. Hit the Swiss with 12 stab wounds, Kaloev returned to the hotel. He could have run away, but he didn't.

As stated in the official conclusion, when the photos fell, Kaloev grabbed a small folding Swiss knife with a 10-centimeter blade from his pocket, rushed at Nielsen and struck him 12 times in the chest, head, legs... As criminologists later said, “he cut his victim on the belts with a penknife.”

Later, Skyguide's guilt in the plane crash was recognized by the court, and several of Nielsen's colleagues received suspended sentences. Kaloev was sentenced to eight years, but was released early in November 2008.

About Peter Nielsen’s family, where there are three children left, Vitaly said the following:

“His children are growing up healthy and cheerful, his wife is happy with her children, his parents are happy with their grandchildren. Who should I be happy about?

New life

In 2007, after a long judicial trial and two years in prison, Vitaly Kaloev returned to North Ossetia, where he was greeted as a real hero. Soon he took the position of Deputy Minister of Architecture.

Vitaly Kaloev with the President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity in the center of Java. The third in the frame is a militia member of the South Ossetian armed forces. August 9, 2008 Photo: AiF / Vladimir Kozhemyakin

Now he will have 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.

During his administration, many beautiful buildings were erected in Vladikavkaz, for example, the TV tower on Lysaya Gora, with a cable car and observation deck, which is spinning. The Caucasian Musical and Cultural Center includes an amphitheater and a school for talented children.

“Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev, whose fate is known on all continents globe, 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 hands of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Boris Borisovich Dzhanaev.”

Now most of all Vitaly wants to be left alone:

“I want to live as a private person - that’s it, I don’t even go to work.”

First, the heart: bypass surgery. Secondly, Vitaly got married in 2015, thirteen years after the tragedy.

His wife was Irina Dzarasova, who works as an engineer at Sevkavkazenergo OJSC. The wedding took place quietly and unnoticed in the circle of close people; according to Ossetian laws, the spouses did not go to the registry office.

The woman does not give interviews. But one of Vitaly Konstantinovich’s friends quoted Irina’s words: “Every day I love and respect Vitaly more and more.” They live in a large and beautiful house, with stucco and architectural delights.

As for the tragedy that occurred in 2002, Kaloev did not forget about it.

“Time does not heal. It is impossible to come to terms with the death of children,” says the Ossetian avenger.

"The Unforgiven"

Not long ago, Sarik Andreasyan made a film based on the facts of the life of Vitaly Kaloev. Main role played by the well-known Dmitry Nagiyev, who considers his work in this project to be the best in his creative career. In September 2018, this film opened a prestigious film festival in Germany.

Previously, there was an American version of “Consequences” with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

After looking at this picture, Kaloev expressed his complaints about the hero’s actions. He didn’t like that he walked around everywhere and asked to be pitied. The man states that he did not ask, but demanded an investigation, a fair punishment and expected an apology.

A full 16 years have passed since the moment when the former architect from Vladikavkaz, Vitaly Kaloev, committed murder Swiss air traffic controller. Due to the fault of this employee, a plane crash occurred in which all his relatives died. Many people are interested in what a man is doing today and whether he has a new family.

Previously

At that time, Vitaly Kaloev was working in Spain, doing construction, and he had not seen his wife and children for several months. Finally, the family had the opportunity to meet the father of the family. When they were preparing for the trip, many circumstances occurred due to which they did not have to go on this trip.

At first it turned out that there were no tickets, then the children were brought to the wrong airport, their little daughter Diana was lost just before check-in, but they flew against all odds.

For a long time after the death of his family, the man waited for retribution to take place and Peter Nielsen, the dispatcher of the Swiss company Skyguide, who was responsible for the disaster, would be punished. However, Peter got off with a fine and continued his happy and carefree life.

Having committed lynching of the young man, Kaloev did not admit his guilt, but also did not deny what he had done, due to the fact that at the time of the murder he was in an insane state and did not remember his actions at all. Although when the man was searching for Nielsen, he pursued one goal, he was waiting for an apology.

Who knows, maybe if the young man had behaved differently, everything would have ended differently.

Vitaly was sentenced to 8 years in prison; while he was in prison, a huge amount of correspondence was received in his name. Over the course of 2 years, as many as 20 kg of letters had accumulated; when the man wanted to take them home with him, certain difficulties arose. The prison administration allowed only a specific weight to be taken, but even after emptying all the letters from the envelopes, it turned out to be more than expected. As a result, they decided to bypass the instructions and gave Kaloev all the mail.

After release

Only a few years later the man was able to find a new family; his wife was Irina Dzarasova, who works as an engineer at Sevkavkazenergo OJSC. The wedding took place quietly and unnoticed among close people; according to Ossetian laws, the spouses did not register the marriage at the registry office. They live in a large and beautiful house, with stucco and architectural delights.

When Vitaly built it, he hoped that his children and grandchildren would live in it, but, unfortunately, the spouses do not have children together.

Almost immediately after leaving prison, Kaloev took the post of Deputy Minister of Construction in the Republic of North Ossetia. During his reign, many beautiful buildings were erected in Vladikavkaz, for example, the TV tower on Lysaya Gora with a cable car and an observation deck that rotates. The Caucasian Musical and Cultural Center includes an amphitheater and a school for talented children.

However, despite this, Vitaly believes that he wasted his time on this earth because he could not save his family. The man does not want to accept the fact that there are facts that do not depend on him.

When asked by journalists whether he regretted his action, Kaloev answered without hesitation: “If you did something for the sake of your family, then you can’t regret it, otherwise you’ll quickly go downhill.” When they asked how he felt about the fact that Peter Nielsen had three children left, Kaloev said this: “His wife watches and rejoices at how her children are growing, grandparents are happy that their grandchildren are strong and healthy, but who should I be happy about? »

While in the position of Deputy Minister, Kaloev accepted everyone in need and tried to help; many requests came from places of imprisonment. Today Vitaly is retired and most of all wants to be left alone. In addition, the man has heart problems and recently underwent bypass surgery.

The only thing he wants is to get to Moscow on Victory Day, take a photo of his father, who was an artilleryman, and join the Immortal Regiment.