How many people were found from the Boeing 154. The disaster over Lake Constance: a chronicle of the tragedy

More than 13 years have passed since that memorable date when two airliners collided in the sky over Germany - the Russian passenger TU-154M and the Belgian cargo Boeing-757. The victims of this terrible disaster were 71 people, most of whom are children.

Events leading up to the flight

On that fateful night from July 1 to July 2, 2002, when a disaster occurred over lake constance, on board the Russian passenger aircraft TU-154, owned by the company " Bashkir Airlines”, there were 67 passengers, including 52 children and 12 crew members. The main part was made up of talented schoolchildren from Bashkiria who flew to Spain on vacation. Vouchers were provided by the UNESCO Committee of the Republic as an encouragement for high academic performance. And indeed, in this group, all the children were like a selection: artists, poets, athletes.

As it turned out later, the Ufa schoolchildren were not supposed to be in the sky on that ill-fated night at all. Simply by mistake, the adults accompanying them, who brought a group of Bashkir children to Sheremetyevo Airport, instead of delivering them to Domodedovo, they missed their plane flying to Barcelona the day before.

A series of accidents

Almost all children going on vacation abroad came from families of high-ranking parents. For example, 15-year-old Leysan Gimaeva was the daughter of the head of the presidential administration of the Bashkir Republic. If these were children from ordinary families, then they would simply return home, albeit upset, but alive, and over Lake Constance would not have happened.

But the influential parents of schoolchildren decided to send one of them to Moscow for them. aircraft belonging to Bashkir Airlines, which was then supposed to deliver them to Spain by charter flight No. 2937. The crew of the plane was headed by Alexander Gross, who had already flown to Barcelona several times before and knew the route well.

And here is another accident - after the children got on the plane, it turned out that there were still a few empty seats. It was immediately decided to sell these extra tickets. There were only seven of them. Four of them went to the Shislovsky family from Belarus, who also missed their plane, and three went to Svetlana Kaloeva from North Ossetia, flying with two children (eldest son Kostya and 4-year-old Diana) to her husband Vitaly, who worked in Spain under a contract. After the disaster over Lake Constance, even the names of these random passengers became known immediately.

Before the disaster

On that July night, both aircraft were in the skies over Germany, but despite this, air traffic control for that period was transferred to the Swiss company Skyguide, located in Zurich. In this center, as usual at night, only three people remained to work: two dispatchers and an assistant. However, almost before the collision, one of the people on duty left for a break, and only Peter Nielsen remained at the console, who was forced to monitor two terminals simultaneously. When the controller noticed that two planes, located at the same flight level of 36,000 feet, began to approach each other, there were already a few seconds left before the crash. A collision over Lake Constance was almost inevitable.

Command Mismatch

The courses of aircraft flying towards each other must inevitably intersect. The controller tried to correct the situation and gave the command to the crew of the Russian liner to descend. I must say that by this time the TU-154 pilots had already noticed another vessel approaching them from the left side. They were ready to perform a maneuver that would allow the planes to disperse safely.

Immediately after the dispatcher's command, the automatic TCAS system came to life in the cockpit of the Russian pilots, which informed them that it was urgent to climb. And at the same time, on board the Boeing, the same instruction was received from an identical system, but only to descend. The co-pilot of the TU-154 aircraft drew the attention of the rest of the crew members to the discrepancy between the commands of the dispatcher and TCAS, but he was told that they would follow the order received from the ground. That is why no one confirmed the order received from the dispatcher, although the ship began to decline. Just a few seconds later, the command from the ground was repeated. This time it was immediately confirmed.

Fatal mistake

As the investigation would later show, the collision over Lake Constance was due to an untimely command given by Skyguide dispatcher Peter Nielsen. By mistake, he told the crew Russian aircraft incorrect information about another liner, which is supposedly located to their right.

Subsequently, decryption of the data showed that the pilots were misled by such a message and, apparently, decided that another aircraft was flying nearby, which the TCAS system for some reason did not detect. It remains unclear why none of the pilots informed about this contradiction in the commands of the dispatcher on duty.

Simultaneously with the Russian aircraft, the Boeing 757 was also descending, the crew of which was following the TCAS instructions. They immediately reported this maneuver to the ground, but the controller Peter Nielsen did not hear him, as another ship on a different frequency got in touch.

In the last moments before the crash, both crews tried as best they could to prevent a dangerous rendezvous by deflecting the controls to the stop, but, as you know, all efforts were in vain. The Tu-154M plane collided with the Boeing-757 almost at a right angle. The plane belonging to the transport company DHL, with its vertical stabilizer, dealt a powerful blow to the fuselage of the Russian airliner, which caused it to fall apart in the air. Its fragments fell in the vicinity of the German town of Überlingen, near Lake Constance (Baden-Württemberg). The Boeing, in turn, having lost its stabilizer and lost control, crashed. A terrible disaster over Lake Constance claimed the lives of the crew members of both aircraft and all the passengers flying on the Tu-154.

Investigation of what happened

According to the results of the crash, an investigation was carried out by a specially created commission under the German Federal Office (BFU). Her findings were published two years later. The commission's report gave two reasons for the collision:

1. The air traffic controller failed to ensure proper separation between the two air liners in time. The descent instruction was handed over to the pilots of the Tu-154 crew late.
2. The crew of the Russian aircraft continued to descend despite TCAS advice to climb.

Expert conclusions

The report also noted numerous mistakes made by the management of the center in Zurich and Tak, the owners of the Swiss company Skyguide for many years allowed such an order of work for air traffic controllers, in which only one person could control air traffic, while his partner at that time rested. (2002) made it clear that this number of staff was clearly not enough. In addition, the equipment that was supposed to tell the dispatcher about the possible convergence of airliners was turned off that night due to maintenance.

As for the phones, they didn't work either. It was precisely because of this that Peter Nielsen could not at the right time get through to the airport located in Friedrichshafen (a small town located north of Lake Constance) in order to transfer control of the plane arriving with a delay to the controllers there, followed by the Swiss at the second terminal . In addition, due to the lack telephone connection the people on duty in Karlsruhe, who had noticed the dangerous approach in the air much earlier, did not have the opportunity to warn Nielsen of the impending catastrophe.

Also, the commission that investigated the collision over Lake Constance noted that the ICAO documents governing the use of TCAS and held by the crew of the Tu-154 aircraft were somewhat contradictory and incomplete. The fact is that, on the one hand, the instruction to the system contained a strict prohibition on performing maneuvers that did not correspond to TCAS prompts, and on the other hand, it was considered auxiliary, thus creating the impression that the dispatcher's commands were priority. From this we can draw the only correct conclusion: if it were not for a series of ridiculous accidents and fatal mistakes, then the plane crash over Lake Constance (2002) would have been simply impossible.

Results

It didn't end with the plane crash. Unfortunate relatives buried their children, and some families after that broke up, unable to withstand such grief. Many lives were taken by the disaster over Lake Constance. The death toll initially contained the names of 19 adults and 52 children. But on February 24, 2004, another name was added to it - Peter Nielsen, the same Skyguide dispatcher who made a number of mistakes that led to such a large-scale tragedy. He was killed by Vitaly Kaloev, whose wife and children flew on that ill-fated flight number 2937. The trial in this case lasted almost a year. At the end of October 2005, Kaloev was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Considering the circumstances of the case and the severe mental state of the accused, the court reduced the term to 5 years and 3 months.

Near German cityÜberlingen, in the area of ​​Lake Constance, an unusual monument has been erected, reminiscent of the tragedy more than 10 years ago. It is made in the form of a torn necklace, whose pearls scattered along the entire trajectory of the fall of the wreckage of two airliners.

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 equipment of the control room - the main equipment for telephone communication and automatic notification of personnel about the dangerous approach of the liners - was turned off. 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 schoolchildren was allocated a 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 took 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 court cases have taken place in the case of the 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 monetary compensations to the families of the victims, 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 who must not let disaster happen. 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.

15 years have passed since the tragedy over Lake Constance. The film "Consequences" again reminded the whole world of the act of the inconsolable father of Vitaly Kaloev. Then the public was divided into two camps. Some justified his actions by the most difficult condition and passion. Others considered him a brutal killer who killed the dispatcher in front of his wife and children. How does Vitaly Kaloev, who lost his entire family, live now, and how did this terrible story end? We will learn all the details and try to understand this extraordinary incident.

Biography

Born on January 15, 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz). My father was a school teacher - he taught the Ossetian language. Mother worked as an educator in kindergarten. Vitaly was the youngest in a large family - there were three brothers and three sisters in total. He graduated from school with honors and went to study the art of an architect. During his studies, he worked as a foreman at a construction site. Before perestroika, he worked as an architect and took part in the construction of the Sputnik military camp.

In the difficult years after the collapse of the USSR, he assembled his own building cooperative. Since 1999, he lived in Spain, where he designed houses for his compatriots.

Family

Vitaliy Kaloev married in 1991 Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva. The girl graduated from the Faculty of Economics and successfully built a career. Starting from the position of a simple bank employee, she rose to the head of a department. On November 19, 1991, the first child appeared in the family. The boy was named Konstantin in honor of his paternal grandfather. Diana was born on March 7, 1998. Kostya chose the name for the sister. At school, the boy studied well and was drawn to astronautics and paleontology.

Unlucky flight

Vitaliy Kaloev did not see his relatives for nine months and was looking forward to their arrival in Spain. He successfully worked in Barcelona and managed to hand over the project by the time his family arrived. Svetlana and her children could not buy tickets in Moscow until there were seats on that same Bashkir Airlines plane.

Late at night on July 2, 2002, two aircraft collided in the sky over southern Germany: a passenger TU-154 and a cargo Boeing-757. Both crews died, children died - 52 children aged 8 to 16 years. Almost all of them were students of the Ufa school for especially gifted children. They flew to Barcelona. They were awarded vouchers for academic excellence and brilliant results in school competitions.

clash

This disaster has become the most terrible tragedy in history civil aviation XXI century. The collision of aircraft occurred in the sky over Germany, so the investigation was carried out by the German prosecutor's office and the federal bureau for the investigation of aircraft accidents. It took two years to establish the cause of the disaster. For the Germans, the main questions were two - how did the dangerous convergence of two aircraft happen and why the collision avoidance system could not prevent a catastrophe?

The commission found that the collision of the aircraft was the result of a mistake by the Skyguide controller, contradictions in the instructions of the international civil aviation organization and the rules for the operation of the collision avoidance system. And also because of the wrong actions of the TU-154 crew. Further investigation proved the inconsistency of the accusations against the Russian pilots, and the blame for the collision with them will be removed. However, the fate of another Russian, whose trial took place at the end of October 2005, is already clear. deprived him of his family and faith in justice.

At the most superficial glance at the conclusions of the commission, it is clear that the results of the investigation are extremely contradictory. If at the time of the crash the pilots followed the instructions of the controller, then the controller is to blame. If in a critical situation the pilots acted contrary to instructions from the ground, then the pilots themselves are to blame, and the dispatcher has absolutely nothing to do with it. This strange fact would have remained unnoticed if not for one dramatic incident in a small Swiss town Kloten.

Murder of Peter Nielsen

On February 24, 2004, a certain Peter Nielsen was brutally murdered on the threshold of his own house in the Zurich suburb of Kloten. The killer inflicted numerous blows on the victim with cold weapons, which were later found near the scene. It turned out to be a souvenir knife worth 54 German where Peter Nielsen lives.

In hot pursuit, a sketch of the suspect was drawn up. However, no witnesses to the crime could be found. It was strange because Kloten is a small village where the houses are several meters apart. Streets, approaches and entrances are visible from the windows, as if in the palm of your hand, and all life goes on in full view of the neighbors. The Swiss police immediately rejected the version of the robbery. The criminal or criminals did not touch anything in the house. Why then was it necessary to take the life of a simple resident of a Swiss village?

Identification of the killer

The answer came at the moment when it became clear that Peter Nielsen was the same controller whose erroneous commands led to the collision of two aircraft. The very next day, the police arrest a Russian citizen Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev. According to the Swiss investigation, the accused went to the dispatcher's house the night before and had a conversation with a neighbor. The man rang the doorbell, and when the owner of the house came out, he tried to talk to him. Then there was a quarrel, and Kaloev was the first to take out a knife. Vitaliy Kaloev killed the dispatcher, inflicting 12 stab wounds on him. Initially, another Russian, Vladimir Savchuk, became the first suspect. He, too, lost his entire family in a plane crash, but he had an ironclad alibi. On the day of the murder, he was in Russia.

Reasons and motives

The motive for the crime, according to Swiss law enforcement agencies, could be the personal revenge of the Russian. In Kaloev he lost his entire family - his wife and two children. But he did not admit his guilt in the murder of the dispatcher. From the materials of the investigation. “I knocked, identified myself and gestured to be invited into the house. He did not want to invite me and took on a defiant look. I said nothing, took a photograph of my dead children out of my pocket and handed it to him, telling him to look. What happened after that, Kaloev does not remember. During interrogation, he stated: “I don’t remember what really happened. But when I see the evidence, I think it was me who killed Mr. Nielsen.” The Swiss prosecutor's office considered these words of the Russian an official recognition of his guilt. However, some facts raise more questions than answers. Why did Kaloev go to kill the dispatcher, taking with him an uncomfortable penknife? Why did Nilsen wait for the killer to draw a weapon and open it instead of hiding in the house?

The tragedy of Vitaly Kaloev

The Russian was among the first to arrive at the crash site and was eager to examine the crash site together with the rescuers. Upon learning that his entire family was flying on this flight, he was given permission to enter the cordoned off area. He wandered for a long time between the wreckage of the plane, trying to find his wife and children. Finally, three kilometers from the crash site, he found the beads of his youngest daughter, and then Diana herself. A little later, he discovered the body of his son. Later it turned out that the boy fell right next to the intersection Vitaly was passing by, but he did not recognize his child in it. Witnesses and video filming served as the best proof of the unbearable grief of a man: he was choking in sobs and literally could not control himself in these terrible days. He did not leave the crash site until the last hours. Vitaliy Kaloev not only lost his family - he lost his life.

Support and help

Kaloev perfectly remembers all the moments of being at the scene of the tragedy. He recalls how at first they did not want to allow him to search, but then the situation changed. Volunteers and police simply could not stand being in this territory. People fainted and were removed. When he discovered the place of the fall of his Diana, he began to touch the ground, trying to understand whether the soul of his child remained here or had already gone to heaven. He felt the beads with his fingers and asked the German woman if it was possible to erect a monument to Diana in this place? Fundraising immediately began and later the architect erected a monument to all the victims of the disaster on this site. It is a broken string of beads.

Doubtful treatment

After the arrest, Kaloev was placed in a psychiatric hospital. During the entire time Vitaly was there, there was not a single independent examination that would objectively assess the condition of the Russian and the methods of his treatment. He spent a whole year in the clinic. What happened to his memory during this time? One thing is clear - even after many months of treatment, Kaloev Vitaly Konstantinovich did not take responsibility for the death of Nielsen's dispatcher. According to investigators, the Russian wanted to avenge the death of his wife and two children. This is a serious motive. But why, then, did Kaloev drag out revenge for almost a year and a half, because he learned the name of the dispatcher in the first days after the disaster?

Sentence

On October 26, 2005, the story of Vitaliy Kaloev reappeared on the pages of all printed publications. The Russian was sentenced to eight years in prison. The world community again remembered those terrible days and the tragedy over Lake Constance. The inhabitants of Switzerland themselves did not expect such a harsh sentence. Packets of letters came to the Russian in prison, in which people expressed their support and wished him a speedy release. He corresponded with some people, in particular with one Swiss woman. She sent him cards and encouraged him all these two years. Her friend's children drew pictures for him. At home in Ossetia, the people were indignant and demanded a review of the case. On circumstantial evidence alone and without a confession, Kaloev was imprisoned for eight whole years.

Liberation

The Swiss authorities did not interfere with the release of the Russian after two years in prison. For exemplary behavior, he was released and returned home. In North Ossetia, he was greeted as a national hero. First of all, the man went to the cemetery, where he cried for a long time at the grave of his wife and children. Years could not erase all the pain and resentment from his memory and heart. Now he could calmly talk about what he had to endure during those one and a half years. He didn't need financial compensation. All he wanted was to hear words of apology from the company itself. Not getting a word of repentance from them, he went home to the dispatcher. But he behaved impudently and knocked out of his hands photographs of dead children. He does not remember further events, but even if his hands are really covered in blood, he did this by no means for fun. The fate of Vitaliy Kaloev was very difficult, and he paid in full for this crime.

Another life

Returning home, Kaloev received the post of Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Policy of the Republic. He actively participated in many social events. Everyone who knew and communicated with Vitaly characterizes him as a kind and sympathetic person. Never pass by someone else's grief. During the war in South Ossetia, he was seen in the ranks of the militias, but no one began to confirm this information.

Many are interested in where Vitaly Kaloev lives and what is happening to him now. On the this moment favorable changes took place in his life. In 2014, Vitaliy Kaloev married a second time. His wife was a kind, decent woman. He does not disclose the details of his family life. It is only known that he still lives in the same house where his former family lived. On his 60th birthday, he received the medal "For the Glory of Ossetia". To all questions about his act and the Nielsen family, he answers as follows: “His children grow up healthy, cheerful, his wife is happy with her children, his parents are happy with their grandchildren. Who am I to rejoice?" Everyone decides for himself how strong Vitaly Kaloev's guilt is in front of another family.

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 advises 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, on July 1, 2002, a tragedy occurred over Lake Constance (Germany) 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.

Today there was a tragedy: a passenger plane of Saratov Airlines crashed in the Moscow region. An-148 was flying from the capital to Orsk. 71 people were on board: 65 passengers and 6 crew members. There are no survivors.

The president expressed condolences to the families of the victims. In connection with this tragedy, Vladimir Putin changed his schedule: a working trip to Sochi was postponed. According to the Kremlin press service, in order for the president to be able to directly coordinate the work of a special commission to clarify the causes of the tragedy. The commission was created on behalf of the head of state.

These shots were taken by eyewitnesses a few minutes after the disaster. The wreckage of the plane is scattered in a snowy field, around, at least at first glance, there are no signs of a fire or explosion. As if he just fell to the ground from a height. At the same time, the picture at the crash site - the wreckage is scattered over a radius of a whole kilometer - suggests that the liner collapsed while still in the air. And eyewitnesses say that before the fall, the plane seemed to be engulfed in flames.

Data on how long the plane has been in the air is still different. At first it was reported that the flight lasted about seven minutes. It was later reported that it had crashed just two minutes after takeoff. One way or another, the crash site is the vicinity of the village of Argunovo in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region - located just 30 kilometers from the Domodedovo airport.

“After a very strong cotton, we went to look for the place where this cotton was found. The entire field is sized - approximately, offhand I give - these are two football fields", - said an eyewitness.

The Moscow-Orsk flight took off from Domodedovo airport at 14:21. And soon disappeared from the radar screens. Internet publications publish the words of an air traffic controller, allegedly the one who monitored the air situation in the crash area - the plane took off normally, then began to descend, but no longer contacted and did not respond to requests. Even an audio recording of the negotiations has appeared on the Web, although it is not yet possible to guarantee its authenticity.

One thing can be said for sure: the crew did not report any malfunctions on board, although the breakdown of the aircraft, along with piloting error and adverse weather conditions, are now the three main versions of the disaster.

According to Svetlana Petrenko, official representative of the Investigative Committee, operational documentation is being confiscated at the Saratov Airlines company, and its employees are being interrogated. In addition, the investigators began interrogating the employees of the Domodedovo airport, who were preparing the aircraft for flight.

So far, too little is known about the last flight of the crashed plane, but experts have already drawn attention to its strange trajectory. According to the Flytradar service, after taking off from Domodedovo, it began to rise to a mark of 1800 meters, then dropped to one and a half thousand, then climbed again, and after that the plane went down sharply. Because of these conflicting data, at first there was even a version that the An-148 could collide with a helicopter in the air. But later these rumors were denied.

Experts in the field of aviation are now suggesting that icing of the liner could be the cause - in the event that a piece of ice got into the engine.

“Sometimes, due to the weather, due to icing, something can happen. The aircraft was poorly handled or got into a sharp, heavy icing. The weather here could play a negative role only if there was an engine failure and the crew did not see the site, could not pick up and land,” says Honored Pilot of Russia Yuri Sytnik.

The crashed An-148 belonged to Saratov Airlines. It had four aircraft of this type in its fleet to this day. Short-haul aircraft, designed to carry 80 passengers. Liner, wrecked, was produced less than eight years ago. At first, it belonged to the Rossiya airline, flew, including to foreign destinations. Later it was sold to Saratov. And the airlines assure that they have no doubts about the serviceability of the aircraft or the qualifications of the crew.

“There was an experienced crew on board. The commander of the aircraft is Gubanov Valery Ivanovich, who has more than 5 thousand flight hours, and on this type Valery Ivanovich had 2147 flight hours,” said Elena Voronova, head of the press service of Saratov Airlines.

“8 years is, of course, not a term for an aircraft. Moreover, Antonovskaya is a reliable company. Our airworthiness standards are the toughest in the world. Not only to new production aircraft, but to aircraft that are submitted for testing,” said Vitaly Zhiltsov, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR.

Meanwhile, the authorities are already publishing a list of those who died as a result of the disaster. There were 71 people on board the plane - 65 passengers and six crew members. Nobody had a chance to survive.

The head of the Ministry of Transport of Russia, Maxim Sokolov, said that "in accordance with federal law, insurance in the amount of more than 2 million rubles is paid to all relatives of the victims, and the necessary additional decisions in this direction will be made through the subject."

To identify the bodies during the crash of the An-148, a special board of the Ministry of Emergency Situations will deliver DNA samples from relatives of the victims to Moscow from Orsk. The identification of the bodies will be carried out at the Moscow Bureau of Expertise.

EMERCOM of Russia opened a hotline. Phone: 8-800-775-17-17.

Works hot line and in the Orenburg region: 8-3532-308-999.

Almost 600 rescuers are at the crash site of the An-148 passenger plane in the Moscow region. The wreckage is scattered over a large area, the search operation will be conducted around the clock, one of the black boxes has already been found.

“We have formed operational groups that work here and in Orsk, on the territory of the Orenburg region. The task force operates in Domodedovo and, where necessary, in the Moscow region. I will ask you to provide support for all relatives and friends, taking into account vital indications, to organize the duty of medical teams of social workers and all specialists who are needed for health reasons, ”instructed the head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry Vladimir Puchkov.

At the Orsk airport, the relatives of the victims are provided with all the necessary assistance. The director of the airport, Sergei Sukharev, said that psychologists and doctors work at the first-aid post.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill performed a prayer service for those who died in this crash. Condolences to Russian citizens in connection with the crash of the An-148 aircraft were brought by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the Foreign Ministers of Turkey, France and Belgium and other countries.

In connection with this tragedy, Channel One changes the broadcasting schedule. Immediately after our program, instead of playing the club “What? Where? When?" - broadcast from the Olympic Pyeongchang