In 2002, two planes collided over the German Lake Boden near the city of Überlingen on the night of July 1-2: a passenger Tu-154 of Bashkir Airlines and a mail Boeing-757 of an American airline. 72 people died, including 52 children from the Republic of Bashkiria, who, by decision of 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 more than 20 stab wounds to air traffic controller Peter Nilson, whom he considered the main culprit in the tragedy that happened 14 years ago.

random flight

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

burnt trees

Residents of southern Germany saw in the night sky a lot of multi-colored fireballs, bright sparks that rapidly approached the lake and exploded. Some even thought it had something to do with UFOs. But it was one of the worst and rarest aviation accidents of our time.

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

Daughter's pearl necklace

Vitaliy 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 went to meet him when they found out that he would search 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, the body of his daughter was practically not affected. The disfigured bodies of his wife Svetlana and ten-year-old son Konstantin will be found by search services much later.

Unsuccessful attempt to meet the dispatcher

After that, Vitaly several times approached the airline's management and asked the same question regarding the extent of the dispatcher's fault in the accident over the lake. The director of the company was frightened of the "man with a beard". The management of the company did not say anything more about this. The air traffic controller remained at his post.

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

Kaloev repeatedly appealed to Skyguide management with a request to meet with the dispatcher. At first they met him halfway, but then they refused without explanation. When the mourning events dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy took place, Kaloev again approached the leaders of the Swiss company, but received no answer from them.

Versions of the crash

Initially, the version was widely circulated in the media that on that fateful night, air traffic controller Peter Nielsen was left alone in the room, and his comrades went to rest. He followed the movements of the aircraft using two screens located at a distance of about a meter from each other. This was a common thing in the company: only one operator remained working at night. That night, the company's engineers turned off part of the equipment because they were conducting preventive work with radars.

According to investigators, on that day, by a fatal accident, the air traffic controller did not correctly calculate the air corridor for two aircraft. They gained the same level of altitude and began a rapid approach, acting on commands from the ground. At this time, a third aircraft entered the airspace, which distracted the controller's attention. There was interference in the radio communication. 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 commands of the operator, and not their special on-board system warning of a dangerous approach. Investigators also pointed out to the company's management that it was unacceptable 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 around - on the threshold of his house on February 24, an air traffic controller was killed, who was responsible for providing an air corridor for two aircraft. Forensic experts counted more than 20 stab wounds on the body of the victim of the attack, inflicted randomly and with great force. From his wounds, the dispatcher died on the threshold of his house. He is survived by three children and a wife.

Vitaliy Kaloev, it would seem, a common person, Soviet architect and builder. But the event that took place on July 1, 2002, radically changed the man's life, completely depriving it of meaning.

In a plane crash, Vitaly Konstantinovich lost his wife and two children. heartbroken father and loving husband decided to punish the dispatcher responsible for the tragedy. This story has acquired a global scale: Vitaly's act is spoken not only in Russia, but also in other countries.

Childhood and youth

The biography of Vitaliy Kaloev began on January 15, 1956 in North Ossetia, in the city of Vladikavkaz, the former Ordzhonikidze. The boy grew up in the village of Chermen in intelligent family: his father Konstantin Kambolatovich, an Ossetian by nationality, taught his native language at school, and his mother Olga Gazbeevna worked as a teacher. Vitaly has two brothers and three sisters, among them he is the youngest.


There were many books on the shelves in the Kaloevs' house, since the father of the family often bought literature even with the last money. Vitya loved to read the epic home country, as well as works of Russian writers. A little boy different mental faculties: at the age of 5, he already calmly learned poetry by heart, unlike his brothers and sisters.

AT high school the gifted boy studied with honors, in his diary there were only fives. After graduating from school, Kaloev enters a construction college, and then goes to serve in the army.

Career

After the army, Vitaly successfully passed the exams at the North Caucasian Mining and Metallurgical Institute and entered the Faculty of Architecture. Kaloev did not waste his time studying, a talented student worked as a foreman at a construction site, learning the basics of the profession in practice. The Kaloev brigade participated in the construction of the Sputnik military camp near Vladikavkaz.


Architect Vitaly Kaloev

In the late 80s, Vitaly created his own building cooperative. Later, the architect was invited to the post of head of the construction department in the capital of North Ossetia. Since 1999, he has collaborated with a Spanish construction company that built houses for people from the Caucasus.

Personal life

According to the memoirs of Yuri, Vitaly's brother, the younger Kaloev was in no hurry with the wedding. Konstantin Kambolatovich dreamed of his son's marriage and even raised four bulls as a gift for the holiday, but Vitaly first wanted to get on his feet, and then start a family to provide for his wife and children.


Kaloev met his future bride Svetlana Gagievskaya at a bank where she worked as a director.

In 1991, in the winter, the lovers got married, there was a large-scale celebration in the Kaloev family: finally Vitaly got married, and even the relatives liked the bride. The couple had two children: son Kostya in 1991 and daughter Diana in 1998.


Kostya studied well at school, and was also interested in astronautics. Vitaly tried to raise his children in peace and harmony: the Kaloev family lived together, the man kept home shooting with happy times when everyone was smiling. In a video from the family archive, Kaloev carried his daughter in his arms and laughed all the time.

Plane crash and murder of a dispatcher

In the summer of 2002, Vitaly worked in Spain, building a cottage for a customer. Due to his stay abroad, the man did not see his wife and children for 9 months. Svetlana and her children decided to visit her husband in a sunny country.

Arriving at the Moscow airport, the Kaloev family did not purchase tickets to Barcelona due to the cancellation of the flight, but three hours before departure, the woman was offered seats on the Bashkir Airlines plane, and Svetlana immediately agreed. They were met by Vitaly's brother Yuri, and, according to his recollections, the woman panicked because she did not have time for the flight.


The plane flew to Barcelona, ​​almost all the passengers on board were children who received free trips to Spain from the state for good studies and victories at the Olympics. Therefore, the company decided to sell the remaining eight seats: there were 71 people on board.

The airliner flew over Germany in the late afternoon, the flight was managed by the private Swiss company Skyguide. At the time of the tragedy, 2 people were working in the control room, one of whom was absent for a break. 34-year-old Peter Nielsen had to independently cope with two remotes and give commands to the pilots.


Part of the equipment was turned off in the control room, and the telephone connection did not work. Peter Nielsen noticed late that the Boeing, which was flying to Brussels, was on the same flight level as the Tu-154 aircraft of Bashkir Airlines. Peter tried to correct the situation and gave commands to Flight 2937 to descend. At the same time, the TCAS electronic automatic system gave the same command to descend to the Boeing.

The pilots of Flight 611 tried to tell Nielsen that they had followed the TCAS command, but the air traffic controller was instructing the other crew and listened to the message from the Boeing command.


Before the tragedy, in a matter of seconds, the Boeing and Tu-154 pilots saw each other and did everything possible to prevent the accident from happening by completely rejecting the controls.

The planes collided at right angles over Lake Constance, near the town of Iberlingen in Germany on July 1, 2002 at 21:35. All the people aboard both crews were killed.

Vitaly learned about the tragedy on the morning of July 2. At 7 o'clock he called his brother Yuri and began to cry. Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Switzerland, and from there he got to Iberlingen to the scene of the tragedy. Vitaly, together with the police, participated in search operations and soon found the body of his little daughter on his own.


After the collision of two planes, trials between airlines. Bashkir Airlines filed a lawsuit against the Federal Republic of Germany for using the services of foreign commercial organizations, and Skyguide for employee negligence and equipment failure. During the investigation, Peter Nielsen was not fired and still continued to carry out his job duties. Winterthur, the insurer of the Swiss airline, paid $150,000 in compensation to the families of the victims.

The funeral of the family took place at home. The farewell ceremony was attended by several thousand compatriots. After the incident, Vitaliy Kaloev lost the meaning of life, which was in the family. Almost every day, heartbroken father spent at the cemetery. Work has lost its meaning for him.


Vitaly Kaloev at the grave of his wife and children

The only thing Vitaly saw as a goal for himself was ordinary human apologies and the admission of his guilt by Peter Nielsen, who, according to the man, is to blame for the tragedy. The dispatcher escaped with only a fine and continued to work for Skyguide, living a normal life with his wife and young children.

In the summer of 2003, Vitaly came to Skyguide in search of justice. The man hoped to wait for an apology for the broken life. According to the memoirs of the director of the Swiss organization, Allen Rosier, Vitaly behaved excitedly, constantly asking the dispatchers if Nielsen was to blame for what had happened. He also sought a meeting with Peter, who worked that day, but was refused.


Kaloev stopped believing in God, continued to seek justice on his own. In the winter of 2004, hoping to talk to Peter, Vitaly goes to the Swiss town of Kloten. Nielsen's neighbor told the man where the air traffic controller's house was located.

Standing on the threshold with a photo of his wife and children, Vitaly knocked on the door of the culprit of the tragedy. Nielsen opened. Kaloev began to talk to the dispatcher on a broken line German showing a photo, hoping that the perpetrator will repent. Instead of apologizing to the stranger, Peter pushes him and the photos fall to the ground.


On February 24, 2004, Nielsen died from 12 stab wounds on the threshold of his own house in the presence of his relatives. Kaloev did not admit to what he had done, but he did not deny his guilt either, because, due to a clouding of his mind, he does not remember what happened that day.

The Swiss court sentenced Kaloev to 8 years in prison, proving that he killed the dispatcher. When Vitaly Konstantinovich was serving his term, letters from all over the world from unknown people arrived in his name in prison, who expressed their condolences to the prisoner. There were so many messages that they were counted by weight. For 2 years, about 20 kg of letters have accumulated, which the architect took after his release.

In the fall of 2008, Vitaly was released ahead of schedule for good behavior. In Russia, this man was greeted as a real hero. Kaloev admits: he was pleased that hundreds of people supported him, but he himself does not consider himself a hero and does not want to be pitied.


After his release, Vitaly managed to establish a personal life. The man found new love and in 2012 he married a second time. His wife was Irina Dzarasova, an engineer at OAO Sevkavkazenergo. The wedding was attended only by relatives of the newlyweds. And a few years later, Kaloev again became a father: on December 25, 2018, his wife gave the man twins - son Maxim and daughter Sophia.

Vitaliy Kaloev now

Since 2008, Vitaliy Kaloev has served as Deputy Minister of Construction in the Republic of North Ossetia. He retired on his 60th birthday. Despite the fact that the tragedy over Lake Boden occurred in 2002, this terrible event is still remembered.

On April 7, 2017, the film "Consequences" was released, based on real events, in which the role of Vitaly Kaloev plays. The location of the action was the city of Columbus, Ohio. The name of the protagonist and his life story have been changed. In the American drama, his name is Victor and he is an immigrant from Russia.

The film "Consequences" - Russian trailer

Vitaly himself in an interview admits that he was dissatisfied with the game famous actor: according to him, Arnold seeks to arouse pity among the audience, which is contrary to the worldview of Kaloev.

On April 13, 2017, the program “Let them talk” was released on Channel One, dedicated to the terrible tragedy and the memory of the dead. In the summer of 2018, the program “New Russian Sensations: Vitaly Kaloev. Confessions of an Avenger.

"Let them talk" - "The tragedy over Lake Constance. 15 years later"

In Russian cinema, they also could not get past the story of Vitaly Kaloev. became the director of the drama "", in which he presented the main character on the screen. The premiere took place on September 27, 2018. The performer himself leading role considers this work to be the best in his creative career.

2018 film "Unforgiven" - trailer

They also starred in the film,. At the first open film festival "Crystal Spring", which took place in Essentuki, the film received 3 awards.

Liner TU-154 small passengers quickly turned into a noisy school bus. On board are 9 crew members, 8 adults and 52 children. Having torn off the earth, all of them will forever remain in heaven. In the night darkness over Lake Constance at an altitude of 10,634 meters, a cargo Boeing crashed into the fuselage of a Russian airliner almost at a right angle. From the impact, the passenger plane was torn into four parts in the air. This disaster has become the most terrible tragedy in history civil aviation 21st century. Everyone died: 69 Russians and two Boeing pilots. In total - 71 people. -72 people, 72 people.
Who became the seventy-second victim of the disaster? Air traffic controller Peter Nielsen stabbed to death? Or is he himself, who buried himself alive with his dead family?

I don't think time heals. When these memories come up, the person does not put up with it. Not reconciled. For what? You see, this question is constantly asked by a person? For what?
In one night, Vitaliy Kaloev lost everything that he loved, for which he lived. Wife Svetlana, ten-year-old son Kostya and his favorite, four-year-old Princess Diana. I don’t know, they say they live in heaven or live somewhere else ... Who knows. Maybe they live in heaven. He cursed the heavens and waited only for justice.
- It would not have become easier for me, absolutely it would not have become easier. But that attitude, that attitude is theirs ... It all went beyond the scope. How they lied, how they got out.
Having lost faith in the law and higher justice, the man began his own investigation.
- Here these criminal commands were given by one person. Dispatcher. He could… He could separate these planes. Could.
The investigation will establish: Peter Nielsen, who was on duty that night, really made a mistake.
- The person was not even suspended from work. Transferred to another job. And he worked for himself calmly, he came.

For a year and a half, Vitaliy Kaloev stubbornly followed in his wake.
- When I was there a year later, in this company, yes, I asked him then. I say: "Bring him, I want to see him." They didn't bring him. I did not hide that I would go there. Do you understand? I did not hide that I would come to him.
Peter Nielsen died on the threshold of his house, in front of his wife and three children.
I didn't say anything to him in German. I just looked at him and realized that the conversation with him would not work. He looked so presumptuous, so self-satisfied, arrogant. And he’s like, you know: “Why are you knocking, why are you pinning yourself?”
Does he understand who you are?
- I understand, of course I understand. Understood. I understood right away.
The air traffic controller did not realize that he was looking into the eyes of his own death.
I looked at him, he looked at me. Well, maybe two minutes looking at each other. Who is worth what.
- He asked what you want?
- Yes, he understood, I'll explain. He understood who I am. What did I come for?
With the culprit of the death of his wife and children, Kaloev got even according to the laws of blood feud. - Maybe I regret one thing - that sometimes I was too strict with children. That's about it. And so - no.
For 16 years he has been carrying his own hell at the bottom of his soul. Remembering those terrible events, Vitaly Kaloev has to relive the tragedy of his whole life.
- I still have not come to terms with the fact that my children died. I have not reconciled until now. It's still very hard. Highly.

Documentary filmmakers willingly make films about Kaloev, but without Kaloev. He does not communicate with journalists, because it hurts to remember, and it is unbearable to tell.
- To be honest, you got me.
16 years of ringing silence and attempts to arrange a meeting.
- There is nothing more to say. Everything that could be said has already been said.
Maybe because there was no agreed upon issues and shooting plan, he agreed to let us into his life. To say aloud what was silent for many years.
- So I just relax, get down, sit and cry? This is not for me. Every word he says is a sentence to himself. And it will be more than an interview. Public confession of the avenger and hermit Vitaly Kaloev. Vitaliy Kaloev for the first time will break the vow of silence, which he kept for 16 years. What signs from above indicated the Kaloev family not to fly on that fateful flight? What really happened a few minutes before the crash? How did Vitaliy Kaloev himself find, sentence and execute the perpetrator of the tragedy? What did Peter Nielsen say to him before his death? Why didn’t Kaloev hide after the murder, and why were his cellmates afraid of him? 12 fatal stabbings, 4 years in a Swiss prison and a lifetime of seclusion. All that remains behind the scenes of a monstrous drama.

For sixteen years, special correspondents tried to get on his tail and each time returned with nothing. It seemed that catching up with Kaloev was a utopia. He parted ways with journalists forever, and has long had his own track.
South of Russia, North Ossetia. The road, like a tireless mountain horse, climbs higher and higher between the rocks, closer to the sky. A white SUV slows down on the edge of a picturesque gorge.
- Very nice for our people.
- Yes?
- We are proud of you.
- What are you saying?
- Personal acquaintance!
In front of the camera lens, Vitaly Kaloev is noticeably embarrassed. A tall, stately man stoops a little and walks to his car with a bearish gait. - In these parts they believe that the mountains show a person as he is. This is probably why Kaloev chose this place for a frank conversation - at the very abyss. We went up. Watched. From there on top. Well, that's when it was... In that life. The conversation doesn't stick. His eyes say more than words. The eyes reflect the past. We fight too, too. We live. It becomes difficult to breathe. Thick mountain air, it seems, can be cut with a Caucasian dagger. In the oppressive silence, the assistant director's cracker sounds like a pistol shot. He never did anything on command. Especially the director. The cameras work in silence, the gray-haired man is silent for a long time. Like before confession. What will you do? As long as we can, we will remember as much, as much we will ... ... carry this cross.
For 16 years now he has been carrying his cross alone, without complaining and without discussing with anyone. But there is no more strength to be silent. So, it's time to speak up.
- Actually, that's when I... ...and I was going there, and... ...thought about it, and that's it, I didn't think that, for example... ...there are journalists, and... ...the people, and...these are those who care about this the fate of the children, as it were, will stand up for defense, I didn’t think about it at all.
Looking before him with extinguished eyes, he recalls his former life. Before disaster.
- Do you dream of them?
- Well, it's personal already. This does not apply to today's conversation, I'm saying it's personal already. They dream - they don’t dream, it’s inside me, and it will remain so.
Wife Svetlana. Gives interviews to local television. Bank manager. They met when Kaloev came for a loan for his construction company.
- And you and your wife were together for a long time, how long did you live in general?
- Eleven years.
By Caucasian standards, they had a late marriage. Only after building a house, Kaloev decided, as they say, to give birth to a son and plant a tree.
Why did you get married so late? Because I couldn't support myself, how can I support my wife? You can’t do yourself, get married and… How? How would it look? Received a salary. Minus bachelors, minus income, minus that, and there was none left. Get married, and then what?
A naive female question about love causes only a grin from a descendant of the ancient Alans.
- Love is when you respect a person, when you appreciate him. When you're worried about him. Here ... you miss. Well, all this, probably, together and love.
My heart was quiet and calm. The son grew up as a man. Only three seconds of video, forever remaining in the heart.
- The happiest day of your life?
- When the children were born.
- Did you give names?
- I gave it to my son, yes, but my wife gave it to my daughter. I was strict with them. Like, using the carrot and stick method, let's say. You know, children need to be brought up right from birth. Right from birth, here he lies there in diapers, helpless, he already then, then he needs to be told what a child should be like, what a person should be like, how he should behave.

You probably can’t compare the life of a child with anything, and… This is not only relevant, probably, here with us, but also in Europe, too, probably everywhere in the world. Therefore, they are probably interested in this whole story so far.
Diana was 6 years younger than her brother. A late child, about which parents asked the sky. In order for God to give a daughter, Kaloev built a temple with his own money.
- And this is the sidewalk leading to the temple.
Driving the SUV, he smiles at his memories. It seems that at this moment Vitaly Konstantinovich is not talking to us, but to himself.
- I went swimming too. I'm not in this, but in another gorge when I left - there. I used to take my son there every August, I made him bathe too and I myself said: “shout!”
- Yes?
- Well, cold water when you yell.
He raised his son according to the laws of his ancestors - the ancient adats of the Ossetian people.
- And how long have you been teaching him to ride horses?
- Well, he was sitting on a horse too, yes, well, he was small. How old was he? 7 years, 8 years...
A successful entrepreneur believed that business would wait if the family wanted to go on vacation to the mountains.
- When I was on vacation, every year we almost ...
- With your wife?
- We went. With his wife and children, too, yes, all the time.
In July 2002, Vitaly Konstantinovich called his family to Spain. There he completed a large project and before returning he wanted to give the children a gift. They flew for the first time. They rejoiced. Joy turned into grief.

Fate warned him. Everything was against this trip to Barcelona. At first there were no tickets, and the wife was already unpacking her suitcases.
- I called these ticket offices and stumbled upon these tickets.
The mathematical mindset of Kaloev refuses to perceive the further logic of events. By chance, by some miracle, the tickets bought three hours before departure ended up on a flight where there were only children. Random, absolutely random. Who knows? The man went down the road, something will happen to him. Here are the tickets. And that's it.
Fatal coincidences continued until the very departure. The children were brought to the wrong airport. Their board flew away, but a new flight was allocated. 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 another 15 minutes.
Before registering the Kaloevs, Diana got lost at the airport. When they found her, registration was already closed, but they were put on the plane anyway.

18:48 - Flight 2937 takes off from Moscow.
21:06 - after an intermediate landing in Bergamo, the cargo Boeing takes off. When both aircraft were over the territory of Germany, the movement of liners in the sky was controlled by controllers from the private Swiss company Skyguide. - The fact that they say that the sky is very saturated there, that planes constantly fly there - this is all a lie too. It's all lies. It was at that time that there were only 3 aircraft in the sky. 3 aircraft. Here are the 2 planes that collided: Tu-154 and Boeing, one plane landed in Germany. There is one small town there. So he went to land there, he landed this plane. As if the controllers could not land him there, or the pilot himself could not land.
Later, the investigation will establish that a few minutes before the disaster, one dispatcher went to bed. Peter Nielsen remained on duty.
The fact that he was alone and that he was alone does not mean that he is not to blame. The fact that his partner went to rest or something - it does not matter. Absolutely none.
It doesn't matter to him whether it was a mistake in the heavenly office or an equipment failure in the control room. The only important thing is that the dispatcher Nielsen noticed the dangerous approach of the aircraft late.
- I do not know the work of these dispatchers: how is their work organized, or what, or how? But to breed 3 planes - you don’t need a lot of intelligence for this. Yes, and by his commands you can see what commands he gave, they show that he was there on purpose or how he deliberately did all this.

Altitude 11 thousand meters, less than a minute before the collision. At these moments, Vitaly Kaloev is paying for two chocolate bars for his daughter in the supermarket. Controller Peter Nielsen instructs the crew of the TU-154 to descend. The automatic proximity warning system, on the contrary, requires climbing. Both planes went down. Kaloev gets into the car and starts moving towards Barcelona airport.

21 hours 35 minutes and 32 seconds.
The tail stabilizer of the Boeing cuts the fuselage of the passenger airliner in half, and the Russian aircraft falls into four parts right in the air.
- I was, I even arrived two hours before arrival. The schedule is pretty much the same. Then it went: delay, delay. Then the flight disappeared altogether from the scoreboard.
Vitaliy Kaloev drove away a vague chill of anxiety. Maybe the scoreboard is broken. Maybe a forced landing. You need to calm down and just wait.
- They themselves did not know, the airport itself did not know. Until they check the information, no one will say. All this was clarified.
Hands do not obey, for a long time it is impossible to smoke. Two more hours of waiting.
It seems to show that the plane will arrive on time, then some kind of delay, then in general ... Of course, there was some kind of internal anxiety, but how could it be without it? How is it? A person does not find a place for himself, how is it, what is there? Then they came out, and after the disaster, two hours later, probably like this, they said what had happened. He heard everything in a blur.
- We were invited, left, I don't remember who left. Well, some representative came out, the representative came out, they called me into some separate room. And then they said there.
What to do - he decides instantly. We need to fly fast! To Zurich, and then - no matter how, to the place where the plane crashed.
- What was I supposed to do?

The Tu-154M, cut by the tail stabilizer of the Boeing, fell apart in the air into four parts and fell to the ground. 71 people died.

The German town of Überlingen, random shots. A man in a light shirt, gray-haired during the night, resolutely goes behind the cordon.
- Well, you see, let's just say, they sent me on the wrong track. I pulled away. They said, well, if you insist, look for it somewhere in some square. Found some spare part from the plane. And they already photographed from above from the plane. Almost everyone knew there, criminalists, they worked there. They took pictures, noted what was what, how. And then they took the bodies. Well, I saw these bodies. I drove straight through them.
In the fields sown with wheat, a man with a distraught look was looking for his wife and children.
- I drove next to my son. Next to my son. Didn't guess, I guess. I don't know, nothing told me that my son was lying here. They were not yet covered, there was nothing at all there. This operation, this rescue operation, was just unfolding when I was already there.
Fragments of bodies were scattered for tens of kilometers. Fruit and apple orchards became a mass grave of 71 people.
- It's a huge area. They were scattered for ten kilometers. And all this territory, and also parts of the aircraft, the territory had to be cordoned off. Then all this territory had to be combed, like this. From almost all the land of Baden-Württemberg, all the rescuers, the police have so far been gathered - this is the time needed.
On the second day of the search, the police showed Kaloev the place where his daughter died. Behind the scenes, he said: “I put my hands on the ground - I tried to understand where the soul remained: in this place, in the ground, or flew away.”
- These were the daughter's beads. Daughter's beads. Here is the place where she fell, where I put my hands and felt for something like that ... I picked it up - a bead. Began to look further — the second, third, fourth.
His little princess Diana seemed to be sleeping, only a big abrasion on her chin. White dress, flowers woven into her hair. The son and wife were buried in closed coffins. There were relatives. There were many people.
I don't know how many, but there were many. I can not say exactly. Several thousand people. After the funeral, everything in the house remained as it was. On cribs there are photographs of small children forever left and a large portrait of his wife Svetlana.
- Why ... They go there ... And they look at the photographs, and their bed is there, and spend the night. We use this room as usual.
For many years he had had the same dream. - Say: "Daddy!" -Dad! -When his daughter called him, Kaloev got ready and went to her cemetery.
- It's not hard, but I'm walking. I go. Filming in a cemetery or somewhere is not the right thing. And anyway, I would be the most happy man today, if no one knew me, and my family was alive.
At the site of Diana's death, residents of the town of Überlingen erected a monument to all those who died in the disaster. Beads torn from impact, stretched for tens of meters.
- It's not me, it's already there ... Here. I think they couldn't have come up with a better idea, children after all. Torn beads... When they found out that I had found my daughter's broken beads... They all knew there... When everything began to be equipped, arranged, they decided to make this monument to all the children in the form of a broken life at the site of the tragedy.


Broken pearl string. Monument at the site of the plane crash, where the lives of many, including children, were cut short

It's only in TV shows that men don't cry. Cry and remain men.
They cry, of course they cry. Not for someone to be seen, to be desired, right? And the hands will drop - this is also a weakness. This is also a weakness. Whatever the person, whatever grief happens to him, you must always hold on, you must control yourself.
After the death of his family, Vitaly Kaloev demanded only one thing from the Swiss company - justice.
- I was in Skyguide, we came there. I didn't ask them to pity me. I demanded all this from them, and I severely demanded all this from them. Rigidly demanded, found out why they still behave this way. And he put questions in such a way that they specifically answered, did not go somewhere, something. They started to carry something, I stopped them, I said: “I don’t need this. It is necessary. Tell me specifically in a few words - yes or no.
For almost two years, Vitaliy Kaloev has been knocking on the thresholds of the Swiss authorities, and in response, silence.
It wouldn't make me feel better if they apologized. Each person should have a certain behavior, how he should behave. If they do not consider me a person, then they must be forced to reckon with this.
At first, he tried to force them to be reckoned exclusively according to the law.
I forced them to admit their mistake, I forced them. Everyone who was present there, and there were not so many of us, 3 or 4 people, they all saw that they agreed that they were to blame.
Instead of sincere repentance, the Swiss offered Vitaly Kaloev a solid compensation - 60 thousand Swiss francs for his wife, 50 thousand for his son, and another 50 for 4-year-old Diana.
- They offered compensation, in return we had to give a receipt that we give up all rights to our children. That we have forgotten them, erased from memory. This letter is at home, and is present in the criminal case.
Having received this letter, Vitaly Kaloev smashed the furniture in his own house.
- I was brought up in such a way that not everything is measured by money. Not everything is measured in money. Here. The fact that they have everything translated into commodity-money relations is clear. They count everything, there, in francs, cents, or something else, there, in euros. And for me it was absolutely not important what kind of compensation they allocated, how much they would give, what they would give. The life of my children, my children, my family was more important to me, more important than any money, any money, any wealth. If they didn't understand it, if they didn't understand... Well, what to do then?
The air traffic controller's crime also went unpunished. He continued to work at the same place.
- His conscience did not bother him. Nothing bothered him. Sleep peacefully, rejoice, rest. Did what he wanted. All these details, these are all the details, I didn’t invent it, it was all for me during the investigation, during conversations with the prosecutors ...
Two years after the death of his family, Vitaly Kaloev did not accept the loss and injustice. He himself pronounced the sentence, he himself decided to carry it out. - The only thing I wanted was to be given an address, that's all. And what I said, that I need photographs, I want to print in the newspaper, there, or something ... I said this ... I didn’t say a word about the address at all. If I had even said a word about the address, no one would have helped me then. Nobody would tell me anything. I just understood that if they give me photos, one hundred percent of the address will be there.
Photos with the address of the air traffic controller responsible for the death of his wife were obtained by private detectives. It only remained to get to Zurich. Vitaliy Kaloev bought a one-way ticket.
I didn't say anything to him in German. I just looked at him and realized that the conversation with him would not work. He looked so arrogant, so self-satisfied, so arrogant, so this one ... And he, you know, with an air like, why are you knocking, why are you pinning yourself. Understood, of course, understood. Got it, got it right away.
Kaloev handed Peter Nielsen photos of his son, daughter and wife. The air traffic controller waved them away, and the shots fell to the ground.
- When the prosecutor's office said that I left him no chance ... On the contrary, he had much more chances than my family. I do not regret anything.
Vitaliy Kaloev will tell how he found, sentenced and executed the culprit of the monstrous plane crash. What did the air traffic controller Peter Nielsen say to him before his death? Why didn't Kaloev run away after the murder? And why didn't you stand before the judge during the announcement of the verdict? How was the avenger met in a Swiss prison? And why were his cellmates afraid of him?

He will never remove this stone from his soul. One tombstone for all with the same date of death - July 1, 2002.
In November 2007, Vitaliy Kaloev appeared for the first and only time at the cemetery in front of television cameras. With a bouquet of daisies, chrysanthemums and their misfortune. At the Ossetian cemetery there are dozens of journalists and, it seems, almost the whole of Vladikavkaz. In dead silence, only the stifled sobs of a hunched man and the crackle of cameras are heard. Since then, Vitaly Konstantinovich has been visiting his relatives at the cemetery only alone.
- If you started filming me there, I would just have it that I somehow PR or want to stick out something there, or something like that ...
He has not parted with his loved ones since their death. Always and everywhere with him photos deceased family.
- That's how many already - 15 years. You see, even now they were erased, because I often got them, probably. And in prison they were with me too - these are the photographs. I was also young then.
Breath intercepts, a lump in the throat ... At such moments, any, even the most correct words is just an empty sound.
All my tears have flowed out already. Well, let's finish already, that's enough.
In memory of the dead, he declared war on the living.

2002, Geneva. Vitaliy Kaloev demands to name those responsible for the incident.

It wouldn't get any easier for me, it wouldn't get any easier. But that attitude, their attitude to everything that was happening - it went beyond. How they lied, how they got out, how they generally refused to meet with lawyers or with anyone else, with relatives.
There were no culprits, he did not wait for an apology. And then Kaloev himself decided to punish the dispatcher, on whose conscience this monstrous tragedy remained.
- I will say that I was even lucky that I found him there, because from the first of April he wanted to quit, move to another job, because he was paid little there, where he was transferred.
Failing to achieve justice under the law, Vitaliy Kaloev remembered the ancient custom - blood for blood.
- It was difficult to find this house there, but I found it pretty quickly. And there were two apartments, but I didn’t know which apartment he lived in. I knocked on the first one, which was nearby, and a woman came out. Again, the language barrier, I wrote on paper who I needed, and she showed me to the next door: here, he lives there. He opened it himself, as if he had been waiting, he immediately opened it. I didn't even finish knocking when the door opened.
- Well, what else is there to say about this? What happened, happened. I don't regret it. He had the ability to defend himself.
But he didn't, did he?
- Why? Defended. How did you not defend yourself? Defended.
On the body Swiss air traffic controller Peter Nielsen, forensic experts count 12 stab wounds.
- I'll make it very clear to you. He had the ability to defend himself.
When it was all over, he did not cover his tracks. The main piece of evidence against himself - a Swiss penknife - he simply threw aside. Walked to the hotel and waited. The police didn't come until the next morning.
- I had the opportunity to leave. But I considered it beneath my dignity to run away. Why did I have to leave or run away? Or something? What would people then say about me, for example? God forbid, what would the kids there think of me? Their father got scared and ran away? They might have thought so, too. They say that there is some life there. Or something is, or somehow is. So I thought about it, what would my children say if I ran away. They are worth more, my children, than running from someone.

It's really unique footage made in a Swiss prison. Psychologists worked with Vitaliy Kaloev, but the advice of European experts seemed strange man from the Caucasus.
- They told me here, bastards, that now I should be better, because there are many like me.
During the investigation, Vitaly Kaloev was silent, evidence spoke for him.
- I spent 4 years in prison without two months. They gave 8 years, eight years. I was not afraid of this judgment. I didn’t even stand up to them when they suggested to me that the court had come in, I had to stand up. I told them: “Who should get up? I don't consider them judges. There are no judges over me." They were confused. They conferred, they said: “Well, let him sit, you don’t have to get up.” I did not understand: 8 years to sit or just sit down.
If it had been proven that this strange Russian had committed premeditated murder, instead of eight years, he would have received eighteen. Kaloev says he didn't care. He did what he had to do.
- A prison is a prison, whatever it may be, whatever the cells may be, there with a soft sofa or with something. Either way, a prison is a prison. But what helped me? My children helped me get through it all. Thinking about them helped me. Mood is good!
This is the only recording made in prison. The elder brother, Yuri Kaloev, came to Vitaly.
- How do you communicate with the staff here? They still speak German. - I taught them in Russian already.
Behind bars, Vitaliy Kaloev quickly gained authority among the Russian-speaking lads.
- There was a Moldavian, a Jew and two Georgians. One is normal and the other is abnormal. Drug addict, all yellow. He kept holding out his hands. I said, "Put your hands away"! I didn't shake anyone's hand at all. Because there are these ... How do I know, a pedophile, or something else. Shake a hand and then cut it off, or what? Another crest was from western Ukraine.
- Did they know everything?
- Well, they knew, yes. Khokhol asked to be transferred to another prison because of me.
- And why?
- I always called him names, he went down, you know?
- It's Kostya's classmates who sent me letters for his birthday. “I would like to support you humanly. It's not easy to lose children. This is the most precious thing for us.”
Words have weight. Words that give hope, each one is worth its weight in gold. For four years in prison, he had accumulated twenty kilograms of letters that he received from the outside.
- Two years later, these letters were given to me. When the regime was changed, the regime was changed, they gave me these letters. These letters were given to me. And when they released me almost 4 years later, they said that I could only take 15 kilograms of things - that's all. And there were only 15 of these letters ... there were more. I even threw away the envelopes to meet this weight. And left things. Well, they seemed to take pity on me, they gave me things.

At Moscow's Domodedovo airport, the Swiss prisoner was greeted with Caucasian hospitality. In the VIP lounge, the most respected people are the elders of the diaspora and relatives. Yuri Kaloev strangles his brother Vitaly in his arms.
Don't do that, you'll break your back.
It's nice to be at home. In his native republic, his release was awaited with special trepidation. For every Ossetian, now is a reason for pride and a special honor to invite Vitaly Kaloev to his table.
If Gagarin were an Ossetian and flew in, then no one would give him anything except for an honorary glass. Above this we have nothing.
- I didn't do anything special, I don't even understand.
Then, as on the first day after the disaster, he still observed mourning and could not even imagine that he would have new family. Then it seemed incredible, but years later it will suddenly become true. But Vitaliy Kaloev will carefully hide his new happiness from everyone.

How does Vitaly Kaloev live today? Is the avenger, who doomed himself to a lifelong hermitage, married and is preparing to become a father again?

It was long way 16 years long along the very edge of the abyss. He himself does not fully understand what helped him not to fall into the abyss after the tragedy. Perhaps some inner core. And, of course, family and friends.
- Hello! They said that you are the most important owner of the mountain here.
- You're like it there, kindle a fire, they're hungry. We will now drive through the gorge, about 30 minutes. We will return back ... Tea ... You have quite fresh cheese. That's it, come on.
Let's drink to big god because everything is in the hands of God. And only he guides us, only he helps, only he makes us who we are.
The second toast is to St. George, the patron saint of all travelers.
The third is for the hero of the occasion. We always have a third toast to the reason for which we have gathered at this table.
Vitaliy Kaloev didn’t just hide it, he just didn’t tell anyone yet. Irina is his new wife.
- If there was an Ossetian wedding, then that's it. And the registry office is some kind of piece of paper. You go, put a stamp, and that's it. When I got married for the first time, we didn’t have a registry office at all. When my son was born, in order for him to get a birth certificate, I went - and they put these stamps on me, and that's it. - All relatives gather at our wedding. Everyone already knows, he's already married, that's all. -This is like a registry office for us. - Since such a wedding has gone, I want details of how it was. - I didn't get on my knees.
- Just "Will you marry me?"
- Well, how? Said I want to start a family. Do you want or not?
It seems that he has already drunk his bitter cup of sorrow to the bottom, but at the bottom of his soul, of course, there was a heavy lead sediment. I guess what I deserve is what I have.
Friends raise their glasses to Vitaly, who, in their opinion, deserved happiness. - - Health to you, this is the most important thing. And we also really want Vitalik to have a little one. May God grant that such a day also comes. For you.
- God bless.
He walked alone through the gorge, carrying on his shoulders a terrible past and a grave sin. Life goes on. And his personal life seems to be getting better. Years have passed since the tragedy over Lake Constance, but the pain has not subsided. And even the blood of the enemy could not wash it off. -Well, what to share, the past, one life. Well, I say, before everything was fine, and after this tragedy happened, a person lives in a different way, he thinks. What before, everything that he did was already useless, for what ?! A man tried ... I will answer with the words of Ostrovsky: so as not to be ashamed of the life lived! It is most important. That's the most important thing, yes.

The most complete reconstruction of this terrible plane crash was made by the channel national geographic within the series.

About Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev and his fate after the death of his family in a plane crash is

The Bashkir Airlines aircraft was operating a charter 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 air traffic controllers 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 to the passenger liner to immediately gain altitude, and the cargo liner to descend. 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. Frank history 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 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 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 the Tu-154 collision with Boeing was to blame Swiss dispatchers. 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 automated system safety of 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.

As a result of the disaster, 71 people died: two pilots who were on board the cargo Boeing of the 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 story of blood feud that followed it formed the basis of several works of art at once.

How events unfolded on the night of the collision, why most of those who died that night should not have ended up in the sky, and how the investigation proceeded - in the material of Izvestia.

random passengers

The main part of the passengers of the Tu-154 was a group of children from located in Bashkiria specialized school UNESCO for gifted children. All of them received vacation vouchers to Spain for 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 who were waiting for a flight to Spain - a total of eight tickets were purchased. Three of them were purchased by the Kaloev family - 44-year-old Svetlana flew to Barcelona with her children - four-year-old Diana and 10-year-old Kostya.

In Spain, their father, Vitaly Kaloev, was waiting for them, former head construction department in Vladikavkaz, in 1999, under a contract, he left for Spain 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 the airline's checker - the 1st class pilot, who in this flight had to evaluate the actions of the PIC on board Alexander Gross as part of the standard check procedure. In addition to flight attendants, there were three more airline employees in the cabin of the aircraft: Shamil Rakhmatullin, aircraft engineer Yuri Penzin and flight manager Artem Gusev accompanying the flight.

Late on the evening of July 1, the planes ended up in the airspace over the German Lake Constance - despite the fact that it was the territory of Germany, flight control here was handed over to the private air traffic control company Skyguide, located in Switzerland.

control room

On duty at the control center at that moment was one specialist - 34-year-old Peter Nielsen. The second controller, with the consent of Nielsen, at that moment went on a break, and two control terminals remained 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 should inform the dispatchers about a dangerous approach between aircraft, was under maintenance that night.

When it became clear that the planes were moving on intersecting courses, another dispatcher who worked in Karlsruhe tried to draw the attention of his colleague to the dangerous situation. He tried 11 times to contact Nielsen by phone, but one of telephone lines was also in service, and the spare was out of order. For the same reason, Nielsen himself could not ask Friedrichshafen Airport to take on another, third, delayed flight. Negotiations with the commander of this board a few minutes before the disaster will not allow Nielsen to hear the messages from the Boeing and Tu-154 pilots.

Nielsen himself noticed the approach of two aircraft moving on a collision course too late. He gave the first message to the commander of the Tu-154 demanding to lower the altitude less than a minute before the collision. However, at that 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 of 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 plane also has its sensor - after that, each of the liners receives a coordinated signal about the maneuver that must be performed in order to prevent a collision.

According to international rules, 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 due to the fact that the controller tried to prevent a collision too late, his orders came into conflict with the TCAS commands.

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

The two planes went into a downward descent at the same time on a collision course.

Photo: Global Look Press/Anvar Galeev

Broken necklace

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

The crash happened around 11:30 p.m. local time, but the first reports of it began to arrive after midnight. On the morning of July 2, Vitaly Kaloev, who was waiting for his family in Barcelona, ​​learned about the incident. On the same day, he flew to Switzerland, and from there went to the German city of Überlingen, near which the disaster occurred.

Having informed the police in the cordon that his wife and children were in the crashed plane, Kaloev joined the search operations at the crash site. Later, he told the National Geographic TV channel that he himself found his daughter, four-year-old Diana - first he saw her torn beads on the ground, and then discovered 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 Broken Necklace".

In the book "Collision", also from the words of Vitaly Kaloev, another version of the development of events is described - during search operation he was brought to the place of discovery of the body for identification, where he saw the decoration lying to the side.

The crash was investigated by the German Federal Air Accident Investigation Bureau. In May 2004, the Bureau's opinion was published. It said that the Skyguide dispatching company, which failed to ensure the safety of air traffic, and its dispatcher were to blame for the collision. In addition, the document noted that the Tu-154 pilots made a maneuver contrary to the requirements of the TCAS system, and the integration of the system itself was incomplete, 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 in the city of Constance, located on Lake Constance, ruled that the transfer of control of aircraft traffic to a private company located in another country was 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 the FRG, and subsequently the dispute between Germany and Bashkir Airlines was settled out of court.

In September 2007, it was issued judgment in the case of eight employees of Skyguide, four defendants 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 disclosed. Subsequently, representatives of the Skyguide company told reporters that Peter Nielsen was deeply shocked by the tragedy. Shortly after the collision, he took an extended leave of absence, returned to the company a few months later, but switched to office work and management air traffic never worked out again.

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

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

In October 2005, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to eight years in prison, in 2006 the sentence was reduced, and in 2007 Kaloev 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.

"Collision" and "Consequences"

About the circumstances of the disaster, several films were filmed at once. documentaries in Russia and abroad.

In April 2017, the screens in the US came out Feature Film"Consequences", which was based on the events of 2002-2004. The role of the main character, whose prototype was Vitaliy Kaloev, was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. After the premiere, Kaloev himself criticized the film for a number of inaccuracies and distortions.

Then, in April 2017, the book "Clash: The Frank Story of Vitaly Kaloev" was published in Russia. In it, according to Vitaly Kaloev, the circumstances of the search operation and his last meeting with dispatcher Nielsen are described.