The planes collided because of the controller. Vitaliy Kaloev about the film "Consequences": Schwarzenegger did not ask how I feel

At an altitude of 4.3 thousand meters in a Superjet aircraft heading to Sheremetyevo, a warning system about a dangerous approach to another aircraft, a Boeing, was activated, which was supposed to land at Vnukovo. The Superjet was flying from Tallinn to Moscow, the Boeing was flying from Murmansk. The airliners parted in the sky at a distance of about 600 meters from each other thanks to the well-coordinated work of controllers on the ground and pilots in the sky. As a result of the incident, no one was injured.

Electronics monitors the approach of aircraft

An aircraft collision is a situation in which there is a threat of collision, taking into account the distance between the aircraft, their speed and position in the sky. Close proximity conditions and allowable distances between aircraft are established by law and vary depending on the situation. As a rule, the threat to aircraft arises from incorrect calculation of routes and from the error of the controller or pilot.

To prevent a collision in the sky on all modern aircraft a TCAS (Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System) system was installed in the air. She surveys air space around the aircraft and in the event of danger, gives pilots a signal, as well as issues recommendations on the preferred course of action.

For pilots, the indications of the on-board system are in priority, and not the instructions of the dispatcher

In case of simultaneous receipt of conflicting instructions from the dispatcher and the warning system, the TCAS instruction is considered a priority. However, sometimes captains of aircraft make the wrong decision and do what is recommended to them from the ground. It is known that people make mistakes more often than technology, so such mistakes sometimes lead to tragic consequences.

Similar incidents happen all over the world.

A similar incident occurred, for example, on January 31, 2001 in the sky over Suruga Bay (Japan) in Shizuoka Prefecture: two Japan Airlines airliners almost collided. At an altitude of more than 10 thousand meters, the pilot of Flight 907 ignored the proximity warning system, which gave the command to climb, and continued to descend on the command of the dispatcher. At the same time, Flight 958 was descending at the same altitude. Seconds before a possible collision, the controller gave the correct command to climb, but the pilot of Flight 907 did not have time to execute the command, because he saw another aircraft flying across. He miraculously evaded the collision by “diving” under Flight 958. Due to the sharp maneuver, the passengers of Flight 907 were seriously injured: many were thrown up to the ceiling, one child flew over four rows of seats, and some people had broken limbs. As a result of the investigation of the incident, the court found the dispatchers guilty.

Quite often, a dangerous approach occurs without any consequences for passengers. For example, in 2016, two Boeings dangerously approached over the Ivanovo region. Then one of the pilots decided to commit. The second plane at that time was gaining altitude, but thanks to the warning systems that worked, the tragedy did not happen.

Some encounters ended in disaster

So, July 1, 2002 over lake constance(Germany) there was a tragedy that shook the world. In the sky, a cargo Boeing, making a flight from Bahrain - Bergamo - Brussels, and a Tu-154 of the Bashkir Airlines, heading from Moscow to Barcelona, collided. As a result of the disaster, 71 people died - all pilots and passengers of both ships. On board the Tu-154 flew 52 children who were sent to rest in Spain as a reward for good study at a specialized school of UNESCO. The lives of children were then cut short at the very take-off.

The cause of the disaster was also the error of the dispatcher: he did not warn the Tu-154 pilot about the threat of a collision with the Boeing and gave incorrect information about the position of the ships relative to each other. The Tu-154 commander ignored the TCAS command to climb, obeying the dispatcher, who instructed to descend. The planes collided at an altitude of 10,634 meters and fell apart in the air into several parts.

In April, the film "Consequences" will be released with Arnold Schwarzenegger about the Russian Vitaly Kaloev, whose family died in a plane crash over Lake Constance in 2002. 478 days after the tragedy, Vitaliy Kaloev killed an air traffic controller, due to whose mistake his wife and two children died.

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

Wikipedia

The Tu-154 pilots had not yet seen the Boeing approaching from the left, but they were ready for the fact that they would have to perform a maneuver to diverge from it. Therefore, they began their descent immediately after receiving the controller's command (in fact, even before it was completed). However, immediately after that, a command from the automatic proximity warning system (TCAS) sounded in the cockpit, informing about the need to climb. Simultaneously, 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, he was told that the controller had given the command to descend. Because of this, no one confirmed the receipt of the command (although the plane was already descending). A few seconds later, Nilsen repeated the command, this time its receipt was immediately acknowledged. At the same time, he mistakenly reported incorrect information about another aircraft, saying that it was to the right of the Tu-154. As the transcript of the flight recorders later showed, some of the pilots of Flight 2937 were misled by this message and may have thought that there was another aircraft not visible on the TCAS screen. Tu-154 continued to descend, following the instructions of the controller, not TCAS. None of the pilots informed the controller about the contradiction in the received commands.

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

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

The police did not want to let Vitaly to 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 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, 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. I still can’t forgive myself that I drove by and didn’t feel anything, didn’t recognize him.

On February 22, 2004, his attempt to talk to air traffic controller Peter Nielsen ended in the murder of the controller on the threshold of his own house in the Swiss town of Kloten: twelve stabs with a penknife.

I knocked. Nielsen left. 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 me on the arm - the pictures flew. And there it started.

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

Radio Liberty

Vitaliy 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, - Vitaly Kaloev admitted. - You can’t learn to live after that ... 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.

Youtube

Trailer of the movie "Consequences"

Immediately after the disaster, the Swiss company Skyguide put all the blame on the Russian pilots, who, in their opinion, did not understand the instructions of the controller in English. In May 2004, the Federal Investigation Office aviation accidents Germany published a conclusion on the results of the investigation of the disaster. Experts admitted that dispatchers were to blame for the collision. Only after the publication of the report, Skyguide admitted 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 the Munich airport. He flew to participate in mourning events on the occasion of the death on July 2, 2002 of the Tu-154 aircraft over Lake Constance. It turned out that the Swiss side protested against allowing Kaloev to the ceremony.

According to Kaloev, the creators of the film "Consequences" did not consult with him, he himself did not see the picture, but he is going to watch it. “Cut and filmed. What is there to react? The main thing is that nothing is distorted. And then there will be action with the chase. I didn't hide from anyone. Openly came, openly left,” said Kaloev.

Mikhailov Andrey 07/02/2012 at 7:00

On July 2, 2002, a Tu-154M of the Bashkir Airlines and a Boeing-757 transport aircraft of an American postal airline collided in the sky over Germany. 71 people died, including 52 children. The dispatching services of Switzerland were guilty of a terrible catastrophe. Vitaliy Kaloev avenged the death of his family by killing the Skyguide controller.

10 years ago, on July 2, 2002, a Tu-154M of the Russian company Bashkir Airlines and a Boeing-757 transport aircraft of an American postal airline collided in the sky over Germany. 71 people died, including 52 children. The ground control services of Switzerland were responsible for the terrible disaster.

I still remember that this plane crash shocked not only Europe, but the whole world. Still - 26,000 passenger and cargo liners fly every day over Europe, and about four thousand over Switzerland. This disaster has raised many questions about the safety of air travel over the Old World. There was a lot of this mystical and incomprehensible in it ...

On the night of Monday to Tuesday, July 2, 2002, in the sky over southern Germany at an altitude of 12,000 meters, a Tu-154 of the Bashkir Airlines flying from Moscow to Barcelona collided with a cargo Boeing-757 of an American postal company en route from Bahrain to Brussels. There were 69 people on board the Russian airliner, including 12 crew members and 57 passengers, most of them were children flying to Spain from Bashkiria on vacation. By the way, the catastrophe, in a very mystical way, occurred exactly one year after tragic death Tu-154 near Irkutsk.

In hot pursuit, the German authorities placed the blame for the collision on the pilot of the Russian airliner. A representative of the Swiss air traffic control service "Skyguide" then famously reported that the cars were on a collision course, and the Tu-154 pilot only for the third time reacted to the instructions of the dispatchers to start an emergency descent.

Then the dispatcher warned the pilot of a Boeing 757 flying on a collision course about a dangerous approach to the Russian aircraft. But the truck pilot did not have time to react. In general, the Russians did not speak well English language, and the equipment on the Tu-154, which reports a dangerous approach, is probably outdated. According to another German version, the Tu-154 crew did not have time to switch to the desired frequency and simply did not hear commands from the ground.

However, according to the "domestic" version, the crew Russian aircraft He was very experienced and would not have made such a gross mistake. Our aircraft was in operation for only seven years, which, by aviation standards, is quite short. The liner was completely serviceable.

The Russian side, immediately after the statement of the Germans and the Swiss, took a rather calm and balanced position, feeling the force of facts behind them. Indeed, at the time of the collision between the Tu-154 and the Boeing-757, it was the ground air traffic controllers who led them!

Very soon, it became clear even to foreign parties that the disaster could not have done without the errors of the dispatchers. Moreover, if not confusion, then at least some uncertainty reigned in the dispatching services of Switzerland. Literally a day before the death of the Tu-154 over southern Germany, the head of the Swiss air traffic control service "Skyguide" admitted the inevitability of a catastrophe in the airspace entrusted to him, since the air traffic control company is on the verge of bankruptcy. No more, no less!

The problem of "staff demotivation" arises. Simply put, the dispatchers have nothing to pay, the means of technical control are hopelessly outdated. All this, of course, can affect flight safety. Note - this was announced by the Swiss side just a day before the disaster!

Then the Swiss were forced to admit that a few hours before the collision in the control center of the Zurich Kloten airfield, the automatic warning system for air traffic controllers about the dangerous approach of aircraft was turned off for preventive work. Being notified of this, in these circumstances, the controllers should have paid special attention to the work of controlling the air situation in manual mode.

In addition, a gross violation of job descriptions was revealed in the work of the Swiss service. During such shutdowns, at least two dispatchers should be at the console. One was on duty, a certain Peter Nielsen, who allowed his partner to sleep - fortunately at the time of the disaster there were only five aircraft in their area of responsibility. In the end, there were problems even with the phone - the Swiss dispatcher could not contact his German colleagues for a long time.

The pilots of "Bashkir Airlines" until the last moment doubted the correctness of the dispatcher's commands, but, strictly following his instructions, continued to carry them out. And just 1.8 seconds before the collision, the Tu-154 pilot saw the rapidly approaching Boeing - but it was already impossible to do anything. Thanks to the surviving "black boxes", the specialists managed to restore the recordings of the conversations between the two crews and the dispatcher of the Swiss company "Skyguide".

Actually, it is from the printout of the negotiations between the crews and the dispatcher that it is absolutely clear that the latter's fault is beyond doubt. The Boeing and Tu-154 flew to the collision point for about 12 minutes at the same altitude - 36,000 feet. But even in the last 50 seconds, the catastrophe could have been prevented - if not for the confusion in the dispatcher's commands.

In the end, the Swiss also admitted that the Skyguide flight control system was working with a strong delay, and the controller took too long to figure out where to send the Russian plane ...

The plane "Bashkir Airlines" performed chartered flight from Moscow to Barcelona. Most of the Tu-154 passengers were children who were heading to Spain for a holiday. The Committee of the Republic of Bashkortostan for UNESCO provided them with vouchers as a reward for high academic achievements. A cargo Boeing 757-200PF was flying DHX 611 from Bahrain to Brussels (Belgium) with an intermediate stop in Bergamo (Italy). As a result of the collision, 71 people died: crew members of both aircraft and all passengers of the Tu-154.

fatal seconds

The Russian plane took off from Moscow at 18:48, the cargo liner from Bergamo at 21:06.

At the time of the crash, both aircraft were over the territory of Germany, but the movement of liners in the sky was controlled by controllers from the private Swiss company Skyguide. On the night of the tragedy, two air traffic controllers were on duty in Zurich. A few minutes before the collision of the planes, one of the operators went on a break. Therefore, 34-year-old dispatcher Peter Nielsen had to work simultaneously at two consoles.

As it turned out during the investigation, part of the control room equipment is the main equipment telephone communication and automatic notification of personnel about the dangerous approach of the liners - was disabled. This was the cause of the tragedy: Nielsen signaled the Russian pilots to descend too late.

Swiss dispatchers air traffic control flights at Zurich Airport on July 2, 2002
Reuters

Two aircraft were moving perpendicular to each other at the same flight level FL360. Less than a minute remained before their collision, when the controller noticed a dangerous approach. He gave the command to the Russian ship to descend, and the pilots immediately began to follow his instructions. But at that moment, the automatic proximity warning system (TCAS) went off in the cockpits of both aircraft. Automation gave the command passenger liner immediately climb, and the cargo - to decrease. However, the Russian pilots continued to follow the instructions of the dispatcher.

But the cargo side was also descending, following the commands of TCAS. The pilots reported this to Nielsen, but he did not hear it.

In the last seconds before the tragedy, the crews noticed each other and tried to avoid the disaster, but it was too late. At 9:35 pm Flights 2937 and 611 collided almost at a right angle at an altitude of 10,634 meters.

Boeing crashed into the fuselage of a passenger Tu-154. The impact broke the plane into four pieces. The cargo liner lost control and fell to the ground 7 km from the Russian Tu-154.

Judgment of Father and Husband

By July 2002, Russian architect Vitaly Kaloev had been working in Spain for two years. He finished the object near Barcelona, handed it over to the customer and was waiting for the family he had not seen for nine months. His wife and children were already in Moscow by that time, but there was a problem with buying tickets. And then she was offered "burning" - on the same flight of Bashkir Airlines.

Upon learning of the incident, Vitaliy Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and then to Überlingen, where the disaster occurred.

No one took responsibility for what happened then - no one asked for forgiveness from the inconsolable parents. The courts dragged on for years and did not lead to any result. The controller, who allowed the two planes to collide, also refused to admit his guilt.

Vitaliy Kaloev approaches the grave of his family

A year and a half after the tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev decided to meet with Peter Nielsen. He learned his address and came to his house. Kaloev did not speak German, so when Nielsen opened the door, he handed him photographs of the bodies of his children, and uttered only one word in Spanish: "Look." But instead of apologizing, Nielsen hit him on the arm, knocking out the photos. What happened next, Vitaly Kaloev, according to him, does not remember - tears splashed from his eyes, consciousness turned off. Investigators later counted 12 stab wounds on Nielsen's body.

The Swiss court found Vitaly Kaloev guilty of murder and sentenced him to eight years in prison, but two years later the man was released for good behavior, and he returned to Ossetia.

This story received a wide response. Discussing what happened, the society was divided into two camps: those who understand why a family man, a person who had never violated the law before, could do this, and those who condemn Kaloev's act.

Xenia Kaspari is the author of the book Collision. The frank story of Vitaly Kaloev ”- in an interview with RT, she said that she had spent enough time with Vitaly Kaloev and saw in him a person“ very intelligent, kind, adequate and educated.

Kaspari noted that Kaloev, unlike other relatives of the victims, saw with his own eyes the place of the tragedy and the bodies of his relatives. Because of this, it was psychologically harder for him than for the others.

Ksenia Kaspari is the author of a book about Kaloev
Publishing house "Eksmo"

“The relatives of the dead children flew in, laid wreaths, passed DNA tests, flew away and received sealed zinc coffins. And Kaloev, although he did not directly participate in the search, but on the second day he was shown photographs of the bodies already found, and in one of the first pictures he saw his daughter. She was found among the first, she fell into a tree and looked almost intact. He identified her, ”Kaspari told RT.

“He was at the crash site when the search operations had just begun. He, seeing fragments of bodies, various testimonies of broken lives, understood and imagined what kind of death his children died, ”says Ksenia Kaspari.

In 2017, the American film "Consequences" was released, the plot of which was based on real story Ossetian architect. The role of Vitaly Kaloev was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In a conversation with RT, Ksenia Kaspari mentioned that a number of random circumstances preceded the disaster over Lake Constance.

The best schoolchildren from Ufa flew to Spain for their holidays through the capital. But at first they had problems with visas, then the children were mistakenly taken to Sheremetyevo Airport, although the flight was from Domodedovo. The plane took off without them. Then a group of students were given new flight, but when the liner had already rolled out onto the runway, it turned out that no food had been loaded on board. I had to go back to the airport and spend some more time loading food containers.

At the same time, Kaloev's wife and children, who also had tickets for the fatal flight, were late for boarding, but they were registered anyway.

“As if some unknown hand led to the tragedy. A few seconds were not enough to separate the planes - the minutes that it took for all these details turned out to be fateful, ”said Kaspari.

Looking for the culprit

For 15 years, both in Germany, on whose territory the disaster occurred, and in Switzerland, where Skyguide is based, and in Spain, the destination of the Russian liner, many trials have taken place in the case of a plane crash over Lake Constance.

There were many questions both to the dispatching company and to the German side, which did not have the right to entrust a private Swiss company to manage the flight. But representatives of Skyguide immediately after the tragedy said that the fault lay with the Russian pilots, who allegedly did not understand the instructions of the flight center operators, which is why the collision occurred.

Nevertheless, in 2004, Germany published a document with the results of the investigation, where it was concluded that Swiss air traffic controllers were to blame for the Tu-154 collision with Boeing. Skyguide was forced to admit guilt, and two years after the tragedy, the director of the dispatch company apologized to the families of the victims.

Reuters

The final verdict against eight Skyguide employees was issued in 2007. Four managers were found guilty of causing death by negligence, three were given suspended sentences, and one was fined. Four more defendants were acquitted.

The dispatching company paid the families of the victims monetary compensation, the amount of which was not announced. However, in addition to claims against Skyguide, relatives filed lawsuits against two American companies that were responsible for the automated security system for TCAS aircraft.

The Executive Director of the Society of Independent Investigators of Aviation Accidents, Valery Postnikov, in an interview with RT, emphasized that it was wrong to blame one person for aviation accidents.

“There are no cases in aviation when it is possible to unequivocally answer the question: “Who is to blame?” A tragedy is always preceded by a variety of reasons - a whole series of events and people, ”says Postnikov.

The interlocutor of RT noted that the whole system is built on the relationship of instrumental and human factors, which should not allow a disaster to occur. At the same time, he added that a collision of aircraft in the sky is one of the rarest events that occur in aviation.

In an interview with RT, Postnikov said that in the crash of planes over Lake Constance "you can't put all the blame on one dispatcher."

“In this situation, both dispatchers and our pilots are to blame. This is a combination of shortcomings, mistakes, misunderstanding in the work of dispatchers and crew. But of course, the fact that there was only one operator behind the terminals, that the entire system was turned off, is absolutely unacceptable,” the expert concluded.

A tragic story, namely: " Airplane collision in the sky took place in June 2002.

City Ufa. Both Christians and adherents of Islam have been living in peace in this city for centuries. That year, the most talented children and teenagers from Ufa were invited to a two-week vacation in Barcelona. The trip was sponsored by UNESCO. The most intelligent, developed and gifted children were supposed to take part in it. For example, Kirill Dekhtyarev has been drawing since the age of 4. For 10 years of practice he had two solo exhibitions.

Cyril's mother: It was very interesting vacation. So we agreed to the trip. Kirill finished the 9th grade and he needed to rest. And it was a good option.

Alina Khananova, a 12-year-old gymnast, was also going on a trip. By that time, she had already won several prestigious competitions.

Alina's mother: We were very happy about the trip. There actually flew very smart and gifted children. Unusual in both beauty and intelligence.

45 children from Ufa, together with their teachers, went to Moscow by train. There they were waiting for the plane on which they were supposed to fly to Spain. But already in Moscow the first troubles began. The travel agency messed up and sent the kids to the wrong airport. The guys missed their flight and were very upset. While the agency did its best to correct its mistake, the children were given a tour of the Russian capital. It took 2 days to find another plane.

On July 1, 2002, children from Ufa boarded a plane at the Moscow airport. The Kaloev family was also on board. They were not included in the group from Ufa. They flew to Spain to meet their father, a famous architect. At that time he was finishing another project near Barcelona. The plane was flown by 5 people. Captain Alexander Gross has worked in aviation for 30 years. The co-pilot was Oleg Gregoriev. But in fact, he was the acting captain. He had to observe the actions of Gross and evaluate them.

At about 11 pm, the Tu-154 flight 2937 of Bashkir Airlines took off from Moscow. Like most modern aircraft, the Tu-154 was equipped with the TCAS dangerous movement warning system. This system works based on repeaters installed in each aircraft. TCAS detects transponder waves and calculates if there are any intersecting flights on the route. If the system detects the slightest danger of a collision, it warns the pilots and advises what action to take.

Hundreds of kilometers away in the Italian town of Bergamo, a Boeing 757 was taking off. He made a flight commissioned by the international cargo company DHL. This plane was bound for Brussels. The Russian Tu-154 had to miss a Boeing 757 in the sky over southern Germany. There were only 2 people on board the cargo plane: Captain Paul Philipps and his first officer, Brand Compioni. The Boeing 757 took off at 23:06 and headed for its last flight.

A few hours beforemid-air collision, the night shift began at the mission control center in Zurich (Switzerland). Peter Nielsen has been working in this dispatch center for 8 years. The center was responsible for the safety of flights in the skies over southern Germany and northern Switzerland. 2 operators were supposed to be working that night. But there were few planes in their zone, and Nielsen's colleague went to rest. This was a common practice in mission control. From that moment on, Peter Nilson was in charge of all air traffic, which was tracked on two screens. At 23:10 two technicians came. They told Peter that they needed to do a technical inspection of the main radar. While they were checking it, the signal on the screen came slower than usual. In addition, the collision warning signal was turned off. The technicians also cut off all telephone lines. Then no one realized that the first steps towards the tragedy had already been taken.

A Russian plane with schoolchildren flew over central Germany and approached Switzerland. Captain Grigoriev received the last instructions from the German controllers. After that, the German center gave the Tu-154 under the care of Switzerland, and personally to Peter Nielsen. At this time, a Boeing 757 also entered Swiss airspace. Boeing 757 captain Paul Philipps asked for permission to increase flight altitude. Boeing 757 climbed to a height of 11 kilometers. A Russian plane was flying at the same altitude. But there was a great distance between them. There was no danger yet.

Nilson's assistant gave him a new assignment. It was necessary to help the Airbus land at one of the airports in Switzerland. Since Nilsen was watching two screens at once, he wanted to pass this task on to controllers from the Airbus destination. But, telephone lines were not working. A large plane requested a landing, and the controller had to look away from one screen, leaving the Tu-154 unattended. At the same time, several planes called Nielsen, and he was occupied by them. Dispatchers are accustomed to a restless and tense robot, however, that night, some warning devices did not work. For the third time Nilsen tried to call the airport control post, but the phones still did not work.

At that time Boeing 757 and Tu-154 flew towards each other at great speed. The team of none of the aircraft did not suspect that they had 2.5 minutes left before the collision. Boeing 757 was approaching the Swiss-German border. The Russian Tupolev flew to the same point, at the same height. Finally, one of the German mission control centers noticed the danger. The dispatcher grabbed the phone to alert Nielsen of the situation, but he couldn't get through to him. International aviation regulations did not allow him to address pilots directly.

Unexpectedly, the TCAS system went off on board the Tu-154. A few minutes later, the system aboard the Boeing 757 detected the Russian aircraft. The Russian pilots were puzzled. They didn't know how high the Boeing was flying. At the same time, the pilot of the cargo aircraft began to descend on the command of the TCAS system. Finally, Peter Nielsen noticed the danger himself. He ordered the Tu-154 to descend. Captain Gross turned off the autopilot and began to descend. But the TCAS system told the Russian pilots to climb. The dispatcher repeated that the Tu-154 should descend immediately. At that time, he believed that he had prevented plane crash and collision in the sky. But he did not know that the Boeing 757 pilots received instructions from the onboard TCAS system, and she also ordered them to descend. They tried to tell Nielsen about their descent, but he was busy with other planes and did not hear them. If both planes had followed the instructions of the onboard security system, nothing would have happened. But the Tu-154 chose to obey the operator, and the aircraft again flew at the same height. Alarms sounded in the cockpits of both aircraft. Tu-154 pilots realized their mistake too late, and the planes collided in the sky. The tail of the Boeing 757 seemed to rip open the Russian aircraft and cut it into two parts. The pilots almost immediately lost consciousness. The Boeing 757 crew fought for their lives for another 2 minutes. They fell 7 kilometers from the Tu-154 crash site.

Peter Nielsen did not yet know what had happened. But soon neither the passenger nor the cargo plane got in touch. At the mission control center, they realized that the planes had collided. This is a nightmare for any dispatcher.

The wreckage of two planes fell near the small town of Überlingen. It was the worst plane crash in post-war German history.

Eyewitness: The sky was orange. We saw bright sparks that fell down. And also explosions. All over again. Surprisingly, nothing fell on the houses. But next to our school, we found the bodies of dead children. We soon realized that there was nothing we could do to help.

Policeman: The problem was that the bodies and debris were scattered over a vast area of 40 square kilometers. It was a corridor 12 kilometers long and 2 wide. We have conducted the largest search operation in our history.

The search operation continued for a week. 6000 people took part in it. Everything was literally littered with rubble. Many trees were burned down due to the fire. As a result, many Ufa children were buried in Überlingen. 28 children's bodies were found in that area.

Vitaliy Kaloev was waiting for his family in Barcelona. He was one of the first to arrive at the crash site. Although the police did not want him to take part in the search for the bodies, Vitaly insisted. In the grass, he found a torn pearl necklace. It belonged to his 4 year old daughter. Also, nearby, he found her body.

Policeman: Two days after the crash, relatives of the victims began to arrive. But they were not shown the bodies of the children, because they were all badly disfigured. There was a lot of crying.

Ufa has become a city of sorrow. People of different religions were shocked by what had happened. Over time, a separate cemetery was established there for the victims of the tragedy. Also, a monument was opened in the form of a chain of paper airplanes, which froze in their flight. Vitaliy Kaloev lost his entire family in a plane crash. In their memory, he erected a huge monument.

Work continued at the Skyguide control center in Zurich. However, everyone was shocked. Over the next three weeks, the schedule of the dispatch center was relaxed. Peter Nielsen has never worked at operator stations for longer.

Dispatcher: If you've been through this, you'll never go back to your old job. This is too deep a shock.

As always, after the tragedy, the search for the perpetrators began. First of all, suspicion fell on the Russian crew.

Expert: The pilot of the Russian aircraft did not comply with repeated orders. SystemTCASmany times asked him to change the height.

Over time, Peter Nilson became the prime suspect. It was he who controlled the movement of aircraft. The media added fuel to the fire. They made history more and more. Journalists took excerpts from the words of professionals and compiled the text they needed. The dispatcher was simply driven out by the press. They called him a killer.

The official investigation was carried out by German air crash detectives. On the fifth day, they found the "black boxes" with the aircraft's flight recorders. Also, all the wreckage was taken to a special hangar. They had hard work ahead of them.

A year later, many relatives of the victims again came to Überlingen for the first anniversary of the tragedy. The Germans built a monument at the crash site. They were huge silver pearls on a torn necklace. The anniversary was attended by Peter Nilson, as well as Vitaly Kaloev.

As a result of their work, the investigators learned incredible facts about the TCAS system. When it was just put into operation, a gross mistake was made. No one has ever said what to do if the TCAS and operator center instructions are opposite of each other. There was no specific order to the pilots what to do. Pilots in the west are taught to obey TCAS first. In the rest of the world, one has only to guess whose order is correct.

Expert: In Russian civil aviation there were cases when pilots did not follow the orders of the dispatcher, and this led to tragedy.

The prerequisites for this tragedy appeared in a year and a half. A similar disaster nearly occurred when two airliners nearly collided mid-air over Japan. They were so close that they could see each other's faces through the windows. Then a bold maneuver saved the planes from disaster. The reason for the danger was that the pilots listened to the operator, and not the onboard TCAS system. There were also 4 dangerous situations in Europe. In all of them, the pilots listened to the controller, not the TCAS system. Unfortunately, these incidents did not serve as a warning. Bureaucratic standards were played, and the relevant services did not respond properly.

Expert: If I have to put together the conclusions and give advice to the pilots - it is obvious. If a warning comes from the systemTCAS,pilots must immediately follow the instructions received.

Unfortunately, condolences could no longer console the parents of Ufa children. Vitaliy Kaloev was seized by the idea that he must find the culprit in the disaster. To do this, he went to Zurich. On February 24, 2004, he came to the house of Peter Nielsen and killed him.

Expert: The murder of the flight operator was very sad news. The worst thing is that he was not to blame for the disaster.. The reason was the quality of the call center systems. The leaders were guiltySkyguide", which did not provide the controllers with the necessary equipment.

What made the tragedy inevitable?

First, Peter's colleagues went to rest, leaving him alone.
Secondly, the engineers, by order of the management, began repair work.

Unbeknownst to the controller, many hazard warning systems were disabled. The need to land a passenger Airbus also played a role. Peter couldn't pass the plane's landing on to someone else because the phones didn't work. In fact, he was deprived of all technical support. Finally, when the Boeing 757 pilots began their descent, they could not tell the operator about the situation due to the fact that all frequencies were busy.

The investigation of this catastrophe took 22 months. Skyguide apologized to the families of the victims. However, many will never be able to forget the tragedy of Überlingen.