Unforgiven. How Vitaly Kaloev took revenge for his family. Disaster over Lake Constance: personal tragedy of Vitaly Kaloev Nikolay Kaloev

After the tragedy and reprisal against the Swiss dispatcher Peter Nielsen, because of which two planes collided in the sky, Kaloev said that he was “at odds with God.” But time passed, and Vitaly found the strength to build a new life.

In 2013, Vitaly started a family for the second time. His chosen one was Irina Dzarasova, who worked as an engineer at OJSC Sevkavkazenergo. She younger than spouse for 22 years.

Two years ago Vitaly retired. As the former head of North Ossetia, Teimuraz Mansurov, told local reporters, “he just lives normal life what a man of his age should live by. He didn’t bury himself anywhere, didn’t isolate himself from anything. He lives like a real Ossetian, a sage...”

And finally God gave him twins - a boy and a girl. The children were born healthy and feel well, just like their mother Irina.

“MK” got through to Vitaly Kaloev to congratulate him on this joyful event.

“The doctors say that the babies are fine,” Kaloev said. - They were born healthy, everything is normal. My wife also feels well, everything went without complications.”

We haven’t come up with names for the children yet, but we have time to think about what to call them. Life turned out in such a way that children appeared and I again had the meaning of life.”

A terrible tragedy over Lake Constance, which occurred in July 2002, shocked many. Due to a pilot error, a DHL Boeing cargo plane and a Bashkir Airlines passenger airliner, on which Russian children were flying to Spain, collided head-on in the big sky.

Of the 71 victims of the disaster, 52 were children. Among the passengers on the ill-fated flight were the entire family of the architect from North Ossetia Vitali Kaloyev - his wife, 11-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

Kaloev was building houses in Spain, did not see his family for a long time, and finally they decided to get out to him... Vitaly was the only one of the parents of the victims of the tragedy who was allowed to the scene of the disaster, where he rushed the next day. The scattered beads from his daughter’s childhood necklace, which he felt with trembling hands in the grass, then became an element of the memorial at the site of the tragedy...

Having buried his family and erected a huge beautiful monument on their grave, he still waited for justice. However, the Swiss company Skyguide, which piloted planes in the night sky, was in no hurry to apologize. And dispatcher Peter Nielsen was not even fired. For two years, Kaloev, according to his stories, lived in a cemetery. And then he decided to seek justice himself. What happened next is well known and became the plot of two feature films - a Hollywood one with Schwarzenegger in leading role and Russian, where .

Twelve stab wounds inflicted by Kaloev on the Swiss dispatcher, who did not want to apologize for what he had done and chased the Russian out of the yard like a dog, was sentenced to 8 years in prison. But already in 2007, Kaloev was released for good behavior. He returned to his homeland.

The head of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mansurov, appointed him Deputy Minister for the Construction of the Republic. Vitaly threw himself into work. Into the empty beautiful house that was built for big family, he didn’t want to come.

Under the leadership of Kaloev, many new buildings were built in Vladikavkaz. A TV tower was erected on the mountain towards which it reaches cable car, a music and cultural center with an amphitheater and a school for talented children.

As a result of the disaster, 71 people died: two pilots on board the Boeing cargo plane. German company DHL, as well as the crew and passengers of the Bashkir Airlines flight - a total of 69 people, including 52 children. The tragedy and the subsequent story of blood feud formed the basis of several works of art.

How events developed on the night of the collision, why most of those killed that night should not have ended up in the sky and how the investigation took place - in the Izvestia article.

Random passengers

The bulk of the Tu-154 passengers were a group of children from a UNESCO specialized school for gifted children located in Bashkiria. All of them received holiday packages to Spain for their good studies.

This group was supposed to fly the day before, but missed the flight. Bashkir Airlines, at the request of the travel company accompanying the group, urgently organized a charter flight for the group. The airline also offered tickets for this flight to other passengers waiting to fly to Spain - a total of eight tickets were purchased. Three of them were purchased by the Kaloyev family - 44-year-old Svetlana was flying to Barcelona with her children - four-year-old Diana and 10-year-old Kostya.

Waiting for them in Spain was their father, Vitaly Kaloev, the former head of the construction department in Vladikavkaz, who in 1999 went to Spain under a contract to work as an architect. The day before, he handed over another project to the customer. Svetlana and her children lived in North Ossetia; they flew to Barcelona via Moscow, where she bought a ticket for a Bashkir Airlines flight.

In addition to the first and second pilots, the crew included an airline inspector - a 1st class pilot, who during this flight had to evaluate the actions of the PIC Alexander Gross as part of the standard inspection procedure. In addition to the flight attendants, there were three more airline employees in the cabin of the plane: Shamil Rakhmatullin, aircraft technician Yuri Penzin and flight manager Artem Gusev, who accompanied the flight.

Late in the evening of July 1, the planes found themselves in the airspace over the German Lake Constance - despite the fact that this was German territory, flight control here was transferred to the private air traffic control company Skyguide, located in Switzerland.

Control room

There was one specialist on duty at the control center at that moment - 34-year-old Peter Nielsen. The second dispatcher, with Nielsen’s consent, went on a break at that moment, and two dispatch terminals were left in the care of Nielsen and the assistant who remained with him.

In addition, as the investigation subsequently established, part of the control equipment, which is supposed to inform dispatchers about dangerous proximity between aircraft, was under maintenance that night.

When it became clear that the planes were moving on intersecting courses, draw your colleague’s attention to dangerous situation Another dispatcher working in Karlsruhe tried. He tried to contact Nielsen by phone 11 times, but one of the phone lines was also under maintenance and the backup was out of order. For the same reason, Nielsen himself could not ask Friedrichshafen Airport to take over another, third flight that was delayed. Negotiations with the commander of this aircraft a few minutes before the disaster would not allow Nielsen to hear messages from the Boeing and Tu-154 pilots.

Nielsen himself noticed the approach of two planes moving on opposite courses too late. He gave the first message to the commander of the Tu-154 with the requirement to lower the altitude less than a minute before the collision. However, at this time, the TCAS-RA collision warning system had already activated in the cockpit of the second aircraft.

In the cockpit

The TCAS system was created specifically to warn pilots about dangerous approaches in a situation where, for some reason, this was not done by the controller. In order for the system to work, it is necessary that the second aircraft also has its sensor - after which each of the airliners receives an agreed signal about the maneuver that must be performed to prevent a collision.

According to international regulations, all aircraft certified to carry 19 passengers or more must be equipped with the system. TCAS was installed on both the Tu-154 and the German Boeing. But because the controller tried to prevent the collision too late, his orders conflicted with TCAS commands.

Almost immediately after Nielsen contacted the captain of the Bashkir Airlines plane and demanded to descend, TCAS gave the command to the Russian airliner to begin climbing, and to the German airliner, on the contrary, to descend. The Boeing commander, who had not received any orders from Nielsen, carried out the computer command. The commander of the Tu-154 at that moment was already carrying out a similar order from the dispatcher and did not listen to the computer. At the same time, the crew of the German cargo plane reported his actions to the ground, but Nielsen, who was busy at that moment negotiating with the third board, did not hear this message.

Two planes simultaneously went into a descent on opposite courses.

Photo: Global Look Press/Anvar Galeev

Torn Necklace

The Boeing and Tu-154 pilots saw each other in the last seconds - the planes collided at a right angle, while the Boeing's tail stabilizer hit the middle of the passenger plane's fuselage, causing it to fall apart in the air. Having lost its tail control, the Boeing lost control and also crashed to the ground.

The disaster occurred around 23.30 local time, but the first reports about it began to arrive after midnight. On the morning of July 2, Vitaly Kaloev, who was waiting for his family in Barcelona, ​​learned about what had happened. On the same day, he flew to Switzerland, and from there went to the German city of Uberlingen, near which the disaster occurred.

Having told the police in the cordon that his wife and children were in the crashed plane, Kaloev joined search work at the crash site. He later told the National Geographic TV channel that he himself found his daughter, four-year-old Diana, first seeing her torn beads on the ground, and then discovering the child’s body. It was this image that formed the basis of the memorial installed at the site of the tragedy and called “The Torn Necklace.”

The book “Collision”, also from the words of Vitaly Kaloyev, describes another version of the development of events - during the search operation he was brought to the place where the body was found for identification, where he saw the decoration lying to the side.

The investigation into the circumstances of the crash was carried out by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation. In May 2004, the bureau's conclusion was published. It said that the Skyguide air traffic control company, which failed to ensure air traffic safety, and its controller were to blame for the collision. In addition, the document noted that the Tu-154 pilots performed a maneuver contrary to the requirements of the TCAS system, and the integration of the system itself was incomplete, and the instructions for it were not standardized.

Bashkir Airlines also sued the Federal Republic of Germany, in whose airspace the collision occurred. In 2006, the district court of the city of Constance on Lake Constance ruled that the transfer of aircraft traffic control private company located on the territory of another country is contrary to German law. All responsibility for the disaster, according to the court decision, fell on the Federal Republic of Germany. This decision was challenged by Germany, and subsequently the dispute between Germany and Bashkir Airlines was settled out of court.

In September 2007, a court decision was made in the case of eight Skyguide employees - four of the accused were acquitted, four were found guilty of causing death by negligence. Three of them received suspended sentences, one was sentenced to a fine.

Murder

At first, the identity of the dispatcher who was on duty at the time of the disaster was not revealed. Subsequently, representatives of the Skyguide company told reporters that Peter Nielsen was deeply shocked by the tragedy. Shortly after the collision, he took a long leave, returned to the company a few months later, but switched to office work and management air traffic never studied again.

Almost two years after the disaster, but before the publication of the official conclusion of the commission of investigation, on February 24, 2004, a gray-haired man dressed all in black approached his house and tried to “attract the attention” of the owner. Nielsen, whose wife and three children were in the house, came out to him. After a short conversation, the man stabbed him several times and fled the crime scene.

The police immediately stated that they “do not exclude” the possibility of revenge against the dispatcher for the disaster over Lake Constance, and the dispatch company, until all the circumstances were clarified, strengthened the security of the remaining employees. Vitaly Kaloev was soon detained on suspicion of murder. He told investigators that he wanted to get an apology from the dispatcher. According to Kaloyev, he showed Nielsen a photograph of his dead family, but Nielsen knocked the photographs out of his hands and, according to some sources, laughed. Kaloev does not remember what happened after this.

In October 2005, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to eight years in prison; in 2006, the prison term was reduced, and in 2007, Kaloyev was released early for good behavior and sent to Russia. In North Ossetia, Vitaly Kaloev was greeted as a hero. A year later, in 2008, he took the post of Deputy Minister of Construction of the Republic.

"Clash" and "Aftermath"

Several films were filmed about the circumstances of the disaster documentaries in Russia and abroad.

In April 2017, the feature film “Consequences,” based on the events of 2002–2004, was released in the United States. The role of the main character, whose prototype was Vitaly Kaloev, was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. After the premiere, Kaloev himself criticized the film for a number of inaccuracies and distortions.

At the same time, in April 2017, the book “Clash: The Candid Story of Vitaly Kaloev” was published in Russia. In it, according to Vitaly Kaloev, the circumstances of the search operation and its last meeting with dispatcher Nielsen.

In 2002, two planes collided over the German Lake Constance near the city of Uberlingen on the night of July 1-2: a passenger Tu-154 of Bashkir Airlines and a postal Boeing 757 of an American airline. 72 people died, including 52 children from the Republic of Bashkiria, who, according to UNESCO, were recognized as the best in their studies and received a two-week vacation in Spain as a gift.

Architect Vitaly Kaloev, whose wife and two children died, stabbed air traffic controller Peter Nilsson more than 20 times, whom he considered the main culprit in the tragedy that happened 14 years ago.

Random flight

The family of Vitaly Kaloyev got on this flight by accident. They were flying to see him, their father, a famous architect who was finishing a project to build a house near Barcelona. In Moscow, Svetlana and her children had a transfer, but did not have the necessary tickets. They were offered to fly on a Bashkir Airlines plane that was flying to Barcelona.

Burnt trees

Residents of southern Germany saw many colorful colors in the night sky. fireballs, bright sparks that quickly approached the lake and exploded. Some even thought that it was somehow connected with a UFO. But it was one of the worst and rarest aviation disasters of our time.

Plane debris fell on the border of Germany and Switzerland. Shrapnel and debris were scattered within a radius of 40 square kilometers. The trees were burned. For a whole week the police searched for the bodies of the victims. They found them in the field, near the school, near the roads.

Daughter's pearl necklace

Vitaly Kaloev, meanwhile, was waiting for his family in Barcelona. He was one of the first to come here to look for his relatives in the rural province of Southern Germany. The police did not want to let him into the scene of the tragedy, but they met him halfway when they learned that he would be looking for the dead with them.

In the forest, he found a torn pearl necklace of his four-year-old daughter Diana. To the surprise of the rescuers, his daughter’s body was practically undamaged. Search services will find the mutilated bodies of his wife Svetlana and ten-year-old son Konstantin much later.

Failed attempt to meet with dispatcher

After this, Vitaly approached the airline’s management several times and asked the same question regarding the degree of guilt of the dispatcher in the disaster that occurred over the lake. The director of the company was afraid of the “man with a beard”. The company management said nothing more about this. The aviation dispatcher remained at work in his place.

During this time, Vitaly went to the cemetery many times to lost family, in Vladikavkaz he erected a monument to them.

Kaloev repeatedly appealed to the management of the Skyguide company with a request to meet with the dispatcher. At first they met him halfway, but then they refused without explanation. When mourning events dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy took place, Kaloev again approached the leaders of the Swiss company, but did not receive any response from them.

Versions of the crash

Initially, a version widely spread in the media was that on that fateful night, aviation dispatcher Peter Nielsen was left alone in the room, while his comrades went to rest. He monitored the movements of the aircraft using two screens located at a distance of about a meter from each other. This was common practice in the company: only one operator remained to work at night. That night, the company's engineers turned off some of the equipment because they were carrying out preventative work on the radars.

According to investigators, on that day, by fatal accident, the air traffic controller did not correctly calculate the air corridor for two aircraft. They gained the same altitude and began a rapid approach, acting on commands from the ground. At this time, a third aircraft entered the airspace, diverting the controller's attention. There is interference in the radio communications. 22 months after the disaster, German investigators announced two main versions of the incident. Firstly, Peter Nielsen noticed the danger of a collision too late, and secondly, the Russian crew made a mistake by following the operator’s commands, and not their special on-board system warning of a dangerous approach. Investigators also pointed out to the company management that it was inadmissible for one operator to be on duty.

Air traffic controller killed

A year and a half later, this tragedy continued. In 2004 news agencies Another terrible news spread - on the threshold of his home on February 24, an air traffic controller, who was responsible for providing an air corridor for two aircraft, was killed. Forensic experts counted more than 20 stab wounds on the body of the attack victim, inflicted chaotically and with great force. The dispatcher died from his wounds on the threshold of his home. He left three children and a wife.

The 36-year-old dispatcher became the last, 72nd victim.

Mentally healthy

The police sent out a tip about a man of oriental appearance, dressed in black trousers and a black coat. Vitaly Kaloev was found nearby in local hotel. He was detained.

During the interrogation, he said that he found out the address of the dispatcher and rang his doorbell. When he opened it, he showed photographs of his children and wife. But then, according to Kaloev, he didn’t remember anything. Kaloyev did not tell the Swiss investigators anything else. He was placed for examination in a psychiatric clinic and, found sane, was given eight years in prison. The avenger served his term in a Swiss prison. Two years later, by decision of the Supreme Court of Switzerland, Kaloyev was released early for good behavior. He returned to his homeland in Ossetia, where he began working as Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction of the Republic of North Ossetia.

The tragedy over Lake Constance became the main motive of the film by the American director "Aftermath", in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played by Vitaly Kaloev.

“I didn’t take off my dark glasses, and then I sat in the hall for a long time.”

Vitaly Kaloev came to the film festival from neighboring Vladikavkaz to watch a film about himself. Having lost his loved ones - his wife and two children - in a plane crash in 2002, he committed lynching, killing the Swiss air traffic controller, through whose fault the tragedy occurred and who never apologized. He was also the father of three children. An act of retribution has taken place. Kaloev remained unforgiven, just as he himself could not forgive.

Vitaly Kaloev came to the show not alone, but with his brother, who also became the hero of the film “Unforgiven” by Sarik Andreasyan, and other relatives. The Ossetian delegation that arrived at the Open Festival of Popular Film Genres was so large that they had to give up their place so that everyone could sit nearby. We met with Vitaly Konstantinovich during breakfast, but few people dared to approach him, and if they did, the conversation was laconic. Kaloev did not allow himself to be photographed; he quickly passed by. Relatives said that Vitaly Konstantinovich lives on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz, next to the cemetery where his relatives are buried, and every time it was necessary to force him away from there.

Emotions were running high. I have never had the opportunity to watch a film through the eyes of another person. What real hero in the hall and with us reliving the tragedy produced an incomparable effect. Brother Vitaly Kaloev wiped away a tear and strengthened himself with all his strength. Vitaly himself did not take off his dark glasses until the lights went out, and sat frozen, and then did not leave the hall for a long time until the audience had left. The excited Sarik Andreasyan was not himself and burst into tears while waiting for his hero’s reaction. He himself is a native of Yerevan, and people from the Caucasus, according to him, if something is wrong, they will tell you right away. “The relatives were crying. One of them came up after the show: come with us. In the room where we went, there were Vitaly Kaloev and his relatives. They were silent. I said: sorry if something is wrong. And I heard in response: let all children go to heaven, if it exists. We were sitting at the same table, and Vitaly Konstantinovich said: this is not a film, this is a story. And they let me go. Them too."

Getting to work, Andreasyan had a 15-minute meeting with Kaloev, gave him the script, which was never read - I didn’t want to plunge into the terrible days again. If Kaloev had told him “no,” he would not have filmed it. But I heard the following: “I’m not holding your hand. You can do whatever you want. I saw a movie with Schwarzenegger. (“Consequences” by British director Elliott Lester, where Arnold Schwarzenegger played Roman Melnik, who lost his loved ones in a plane crash, whose prototype was Kaloev, he refused to meet with the authors of this film. - S.Kh.) Aren’t they ashamed? What is that hut on the screen? Do you know what my house is like?! I have a brick house." But the film crew did not have a chance to visit it. I had to study the interiors using chronicles and fragments of recordings that appeared on air during the days of the double tragedy. So on the screen - collective image Caucasian house. Kaloyev’s relatives asked after the show: “Have you been to his house? Everything has been recreated exactly.”

Surely Dmitry Nagiyev, who played the main character, has Eastern roots, judging by his surname and facial features. For the role I had to lose 8 kg and change my eye color. Andreasyan does not justify Kaloev’s actions, but as a man and father he understands: “He did not go to kill. Something unconscious happened. This is a meeting of two civilizations. If the dispatcher had apologized on the doorstep, everything would have been different. The human factor comes first only in the post-Soviet space. We have a soul first of all. Europeans are different, which is why they talk about compensation to the relatives of the victims when they need an apology. This is history little man, capable of changing the course of things. The words of our hero “what would you do if you saw children in a coffin?” we took from an interview with brother Kaloev. “I quarreled with God” - the words of Vitaly Konstantinovich himself are heard in the film, hearing which his brother closed his eyes while watching. The time for lynching has passed, but before today In the Caucasus, the tradition of “an eye for an eye” exists. In our country, Vitaly would probably have been given a life sentence for killing a person, but in Europe he was sentenced to 14 years, but he was given eight years, and then released two years later, given the circumstances of the case.”

The birth story of each competition film is full of strong emotions. Awarded for its directing, Eduard Novikov's Yakut "Tsar Bird" took 12 years to create, since the director read the story of his fellow countryman. Then I prepared for a long time, but technically I could not implement my project. Nobody gave money, citing the fact that the film was non-commercial. According to jury member - director Alexander Proshkin, this is the third Yakut film to which he has awarded a prize in the last two years. “Burn!” Kirill Pletneva, who aroused the ire of critics for the very fact of fraternization between prisoners and guards, was, oddly enough, unanimously recognized by the jury as the best picture and received the Grand Prix.

I just demanded that the people from the airline apologize to the relatives of the victims, as is humanly possible, but they constantly got out of it...

“West is West, East is East, and they will never come together,” wrote Kipling. But in the tiny Swiss town of Kloten, not far from Zurich, not just two civilizations came together, but two completely different mentalities that spoke completely different languages.

Russian Vitaly Kaloyev did not need any compensation or court decisions, he just wanted to finally hear a human apology from those who - albeit unwittingly - destroyed his family. Swiss Peter Nielsen thought only about the legal consequences. “An apology implies an admission of guilt, and this can lead to undesirable court decisions,” the lawyers told them.

Therefore, Nielsen did not let Kaloyev onto the threshold of his house.

I rang the doorbell again and told him: “Ich bin Russland,” said Kaloev. - 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 for the second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped me on the hand - the pictures flew to the ground... My eyes went dark. It even seemed to me that my children were turned over in their coffins, thrown out of them, that is, from the coffins...

Further events were reconstructed by the investigation. Not remembering himself with anger, Kaloev grabbed a Wenger folding Swiss knife from his pocket - the most ordinary folding knife that can be bought in any store. The blade is only 10 centimeters long.

With this knife, he rushed at Peter and began to chop up his enemy, striking anywhere: in the chest, in the face, in the mouth twisted with a grin...

Nielsen tried to resist, but in vain - in just a minute, Kaloev inflicted 17 stab wounds on the victim. Nine blows hit the chest - the knife pierced the lungs and heart. Several blows landed in the face - the mouth was cut on both sides almost from ear to ear, two teeth were knocked out. Kaloev also cut his victim’s femoral artery and veins...

Hearing Nielsen's screams, his wife Mette jumped out onto the terrace and saw a terrible picture: her husband was lying in a pool of blood, and a scary black-bearded man was standing over him with a knife in his hand. She rushed to her neighbors screaming for help.

But Vitaly Kaloev, not paying any attention to the screams, simply turned around and slowly walked away on foot - as if on autopilot, he walked to the Welcome Inn hotel, where he stayed when he arrived in Kloten. Somewhere halfway there, he remembered the bloody knife that he was still clutching in his hand. Kaloyev threw the knife into some ditch - the police then dug through half the city, trying to find the murder weapon. Unnoticed by anyone - at six o'clock the streets of Swiss towns literally die out - he reached the hotel. In the room, he took off his bloody clothes and shoes and put them, along with blood-splattered photographs, in a bag, which he hid in the trash near the exit of the hotel's underground garage. He returned to the room and began to wait. What? He himself didn’t know what exactly. There was no longer any point in living anymore.

Detention of Vitaly Kaloev. Photo: © REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

Vitaly Kaloev just sat in the room and waited for something, looking at one point on the wall.

Police special forces broke into his room only a day later.

Regular builder

Before this monstrous tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev was an ordinary builder from North Ossetia. He was born on January 15, 1956 in the city of Vladikavkaz, formerly Ordzhonikidze. His father Konstantin Kambolatovich taught at school Ossetian language, mother Olga Gazbeevna worked as a teacher in a kindergarten. Vitaly also had two brothers and three sisters, among them he is the youngest. At the same time, the parents were most proud of Vitaly, who adored reading since childhood. Already at the age of five, he read fluently and learned poetry by heart, and at school he got straight A's.

After graduating from school, Kaloev entered a construction technical school, then served in the army, entered the Institute of Architecture and Construction, then got a job in the construction department of Ossetia.

In 1991, he married Svetlana Gagievskaya, who worked as the director of the local branch of Sberbank.

Soon the couple had two children - son Kostya in 1991 and daughter Diana in 1998.

In a word, this was a friendly and very wealthy family by Ossetian standards: Vitaly headed the construction department of Vladikavkaz, Svetlana worked as deputy director for finance of the Daryal brewing plant, the son studied at the most prestigious school. Then the financial crisis of 1998 hit the country, and many local businesses declared bankruptcy. And then Vitaly Kaloev decided to find work abroad. In 1999, his construction department signed a contract with a Spanish company and he left to build residential buildings in Barcelona.

01.07.2002

The family of Vitaly Kaloyev got on this flight by accident. In Moscow, Svetlana and her children had a transfer, but due to weather conditions they missed their flight and got stuck in Sheremetyevo. And after three hours of waiting, the dispatcher offered the Kaloyevs three free seats on board the Tu-154 charter flight airline "Bashkir Airlines", on which a group of teenagers flew to Spain - the best students of a UNESCO special school, winners of various Olympiads, who received free holiday packages on the coast Mediterranean Sea. There were several empty seats on board.

On the night of July 1, 2002, a Tu-154 collided in the air with a Boeing 747 aircraft of the international logistics company DHL, flying from Bahrain to Brussels - there were no passengers on board, only two experienced pilots. The disaster occurred near the small town of Iberlingen, near Lake Constance.

As it later turned out, the crash occurred due to the fault of dispatchers of the private Swiss company Skyguide, which managed air traffic in this area of ​​​​Germany. As experts have found out, two factors led to the disaster. On the eve of the tragedy, equipment was changed in the control room, but the new systems worked with malfunctions and errors, which the dispatchers were honestly warned about by posters hanging around the office. True, the dispatchers themselves did not pay any attention to these warnings.

Moreover, at the time of the tragedy, in violation of all norms and rules, only two people were working in the control room, one of whom was also out for a lunch break. As a result, 34-year-old Peter Nielsen had to independently cope with two remote controls and give commands to the pilots.

Because 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 rectify the situation and transmitted instructions to the Tu-154 to descend, although automatic system warning of dangerous approaches, on the contrary, recommended pilots to gain altitude. The Boeing 747 also began to descend, but Nielsen, not having heard his message, made a second fatal mistake, mixing up the sides: he told the Tu-154 pilots that the Boeing was on the right, while in reality the plane was on the left.

Seconds before the collision, the plane pilots saw each other and made a desperate attempt to prevent a disaster - but it was too late.

Pearl necklace

Vitaly Kaloev, as soon as he heard about the disaster in the skies over Germany, dropped everything and went to Lake Constance. He was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the disaster. The police did not want to let him into the scene of the tragedy, but they met him halfway when they learned that he would be looking for the dead with them.

Already on the first day of work, he found a torn pearl necklace of his four-year-old daughter Diana in the forest - a few years later this image was embodied in the monument “Torn String of Pearls”, installed at the site of the disaster.

Next, Vitaly found the body of Diana’s four-year-old daughter, who, to the surprise of all rescuers, was practically unharmed. But the search engines managed to find the disfigured bodies of his wife Svetlana and ten-year-old son Konstantin only after a week and a half of work.

“I spent ten days searching for the remains of my dear children and wife,” he wrote on a website dedicated to the memory of the victims of the disaster. “My life stopped on this tragic date of 07/01/2002. I can only live with memories. The only consolation is visiting them every day graves in the cemetery in Vladikavkaz, where they are buried."

The wreckage of a crashed Tupolev at the crash site. Photo: © AP Photo/Diether Endlicher

During rescue operations from German rescuers, Kaloyev heard for the first time the name of dispatcher Peter Nielsen, because for a long time Skyguide management generally denied any involvement in the disaster over Lake Constance. After this, Vitaly approached the airline’s management several times and asked the same question regarding the extent of the dispatcher’s guilt in the accident over the lake. But no one wanted to talk to him.

How to make money from tragedy

The investigation into the causes of the tragedy, which was carried out by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, took 22 months. At the same time, the management of the Skyguide company dodged as best they could. The Swiss were also helped in this by the European press, which from the very first minutes of the tragedy reflexively blamed the Russian side for what had happened: they say, everything happened because the Bashkir Airlines pilots allegedly did not know English.

Then Skyguide's lawyers set a condition for the relatives of the victims: in exchange for monetary compensation, they had to renounce all claims against other participants in the disaster in favor of the company. The calculation of compensation was compiled with European meticulousness: parents for dead child- 50 thousand francs, spouse for spouse - 60 thousand, child for parent - 40 thousand. According to experts, such a requirement allowed Skyguide to file claims against DHL and even... make money from this business!

Exactly then Russian people They looked with surprise at cynical Europe and wondered: does this really happen in Europe?!..

Relatives of those killed in the plane crash hold placards in front of the district court in Buelach near Zurich, May 21, 2007. Photo: © AP Photo/KEYSTONE/Alessandro Della Bella

Only pressed to the wall by irrefutable facts, the Swiss through gritted teeth admitted the guilt of the management of Skyguide, which did not provide the control center with enough personnel during the night shift. At the same time, no one officially named Peter Nielsen as the culprit of the collision, and Skyguide only temporarily suspended him from work and sent him to psychological rehabilitation, without even imposing penalties.

But Vitaly Kaloev all this time lived with an obsession to achieve justice, even illusory. He wanted people who treated the relatives of the victims like garbage to finally admit their guilt and ask for forgiveness.

If he apologized...

A year after the tragedy, Kaloev came to a funeral ceremony in Iberlingen and demanded a conversation with the director of Skyguide, Alan Rossier.

I went up to him, took out photographs of the children’s graves and asked: “If your children were lying like this, how would you talk?” - Kaloev recalled. - But he didn’t even deign me to answer. Then I came to their residence and spoke harshly. I said: “You took my family away from me, and now you turn your nose up!” And forced the director to talk to me. He asked: “Are you guilty?” At first he snapped: “No. The pilots should have listened to their navigational safety device.” “But if your controller had not intervened, the planes might have flown apart?” He nodded: "Yes." I still forced him to admit his mistake. I achieved what all lawyers and jurists could not do!.. Then the director invited me to have lunch together, but I thought: “Am I going to eat at the same table with the murderers of my children?!” And he refused. And other parents agreed, and, as they told me, this Rossier cried in that restaurant... I hoped that his conscience had awakened. But it was not so.

To the offer letter monetary compensation he didn't even answer.

Alain Rossier. Photo: © AP Photos/ Keystone, Walter Bieri

I didn't even look at this letter. Money in exchange for memory?! This was after that meeting with the director. I realized: they don’t consider us people!

Instead, he began to seek a meeting with the dispatcher Nielsen, but in response, in November 2003, he received a letter from Skyguide's lawyers, in which Vitaly Kaloev was notified that the company and the dispatcher had nothing to apologize to him for.

Since Vitaly Kaloev did not know where to find the dispatcher, he turned to the Moscow detective agency "Maigre-2" with a request to compile a dossier on everyone working at Skyguide. The dossier was compiled by the Swiss colleagues of the capital's detectives themselves for a generous fee. True, at the request of the Swiss, Kaloev signed guarantee obligation not cause physical harm to any person whose photographs were provided. However, as Kaloev stated, at that moment he had no intention of causing physical suffering to anyone. He just wanted an apology.

Then Kaloev, through acquaintances in Vladikavkaz, bought a foreign passport in the name of a certain Vasily Glukhov. As he later stated in court, he simply did not want to be arrested immediately upon arrival in Zurich - on the orders of his lawyers.

On February 24, 2004, Kaloev appeared on the threshold of Nielsen’s house and again took out photographs of his dead children: “Do these children really not deserve to at least apologize to them?!..”

It is interesting that Peter Nielsen, who was warned by Skyguide’s lawyers about the persistent interest that the Russians were showing in his person, bought himself a Swiss Sphix SDP pistol for self-defense, with which he constantly went to work. But Vitaly took Nielsen by surprise - when he was at home, the gun was in the gun safe so that small children would not accidentally find the weapon.

Out of frustration, the dispatcher hit the hand with the photographs, the cards with the portraits of Diana and Kostya fell into the dirt, and Vitaly, in a state of passion, attacked Nielsen with a folding knife.

If he had simply apologized, none of this would have happened, he repeated over and over again in court.

Sentence

The 36-year-old dispatcher became the latest, 72nd, victim of an accident over Lake Constance. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Dispatcher Peter Nielsen. Screenshot © L!FE

Within an hour after the murder, the police sent out a tip on a man of oriental appearance, dressed in black trousers and a black coat. All roads were blocked - the police were sure that the killer would try to escape from the country.

Kaloyev was caught by accident - when a hotel employee, after watching TV, decided to call the police so that, just in case, they would check their bearded guest, who had not left his room for a day.

Already at the first interrogation, Kaloev signed a confession to the murder - he saw no point in hiding. At the same time, Vitaly Kaloev expressed indignation that in Switzerland the investigation of the disaster is at a standstill.

So you think those guilty of negligent homicide should be sent to prison? - the investigator asked him.

The most important thing for me is that they apologize. I don't want them to go to jail. You won't get my children back anyway.

Why do you need these apologies? - the Germans were perplexed.

This is all I can do for my family. I live in a cemetery, thinking about only one thing: how to achieve justice.

President of the Republic of North Ossetia Taimuraz Mamsurov speaks to the media outside the court in Zurich, Switzerland, Tuesday, October 25, 2005. Photo: © AP Photo/Keystone, Walter Bieri

After the trial, journalists asked Kaloev: if he so demands an apology from Skyguide, then doesn’t he want to apologize to the Nielsen family for the crime he committed?

“I will find such an opportunity,” Kaloev answered after a moment of silence. - I feel sorry for his children.

National hero of Ossetia

Two years later - in November 2007 - by a court decision, Kaloev was released for exemplary behavior.

Almost the entire prison knew me,” Vitaly Kaloev later recalled. - When I went for a walk, many people came up to me to say hello. But until I found out how and what, I didn’t shake hands with anyone: pedophiles and sexual rapists were sitting there too. I was afraid that I would shake hands with such a person, and then, I think, I wouldn’t wash my hand.

In North Ossetia, the release of Vitaly Kaloev was perceived as National holiday. At Vladikavkaz airport national hero was greeted by the head of the republic Taimuraz Mamsurov himself and fans of the Alania club.

Russian Vitaly Kaloev arrived in Moscow (Domodedovo Airport). Swiss authorities have released from prison Russian Vitaly Kaloyev, who was previously convicted of murdering a dispatcher for the Swiss company Skyguide. Photo: © RIA Novosti / Anton Denisov

In 2008, Kaloev received a high post in the government of the republic: he was approved for the post of Deputy Minister of Construction Policy and Architecture of the republic. It is Kaloev who has been overseeing all significant projects for the last 10 years, for example, the construction of a television tower on Bald Mountain - with a rotating observation deck and a restaurant, just like in Moscow. Another project is the Caucasian Musical and Cultural Center named after Valery Gergiev, designed in the workshop of Norman Foster.

In this post, he became a real people's intercessor - a reception on personal issues with Deputy Minister Kaloyev was scheduled for months in advance. They come to him with any questions: they need money for medicine, building materials for repairs, to arrange a high-tech operation for someone. They know that folk hero the republic will not refuse.

Kaloev’s phone is also ringing off the hook with calls from the colonies: prisoners all over the country believe that only an official who has served time will meet them halfway. Moreover, most often prisoners ask to resolve the issue of prison parcels or to open a prison kiosk where they can buy tea and cigarettes.

The story of Vitaly Kaloev has already become the basis for feature film: in 2017, the Hollywood drama “Consequences” was released, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. True, Vitaly Kaloev himself criticized the film and said that he was dissatisfied with Schwarzenegger’s performance: they say, former governor California is only trying to arouse pity for itself instead of seeking justice.

Still from the film "Consequences". Photo: © kinopoisk.ru

It’s as if he’s asking for the entire film to be pitied and petted. I will say that this was not on my part, I do not want to be pitied. I wanted and insisted that the authorities understand what had happened, so that the perpetrators would receive the deserved punishment. That's all.