Vitaly Kaloev created a new family. Vitaly Kaloyev, who avenged the death of his family, life first (8 photos) How many Kaloyevs served in a Swiss prison
A full 16 years have passed since the moment when the former architect from Vladikavkaz, Vitaly Kaloev, committed the murder of a Swiss air traffic controller. Due to the fault of this employee, a plane crash occurred in which all his relatives died. Many people are interested in what a man is doing today and whether he has a new family.
Previously
At that time, Vitaly Kaloev was working in Spain, doing construction, and he had not seen his wife and children for several months. Finally, the family had the opportunity to meet the father of the family. When they were preparing for the trip, many circumstances occurred due to which they did not have to go on this trip.
At first it turned out that there were no tickets, then the children were brought to the wrong airport, their little daughter Diana was lost just before check-in, but they flew against all odds.
For a long time after the death of his family, the man waited for retribution to take place and Peter Nielsen, the dispatcher of the Swiss company Skyguide, who was responsible for the disaster, would be punished. However, Peter got off with a fine and continued his happy and carefree life.
Having committed lynching of the young man, Kaloev did not admit his guilt, but also did not deny what he had done, due to the fact that at the time of the murder he was in an insane state and did not remember his actions at all. Although when the man was searching for Nielsen, he pursued one goal, he was waiting for an apology.
Who knows, maybe if the young man had behaved differently, everything would have ended differently.
Vitaly was sentenced to 8 years in prison; while he was in prison, a huge amount of correspondence was received in his name. Over the course of 2 years, as many as 20 kg of letters had accumulated; when the man wanted to take them home with him, certain difficulties arose. The prison administration allowed only a specific weight to be taken, but even after emptying all the letters from the envelopes, it turned out to be more than expected. As a result, they decided to bypass the instructions and gave Kaloev all the mail.
After release
Only a few years later the man was able to find a new family; his wife was Irina Dzarasova, who works as an engineer at Sevkavkazenergo OJSC. The wedding took place quietly and unnoticed among close people; according to Ossetian laws, the spouses did not register the marriage at the registry office. They live in a large and beautiful house, with stucco and architectural delights.
When Vitaly built it, he hoped that his children and grandchildren would live in it, but, unfortunately, the spouses do not have children together.
Almost immediately after leaving prison, Kaloev took the post of Deputy Minister of Construction in the Republic of North Ossetia. During his reign, many beautiful buildings were erected in Vladikavkaz, for example, the TV tower on Lysaya Gora with a cable car and an observation deck that rotates. The Caucasian Musical and Cultural Center includes an amphitheater and a school for talented children.
However, despite this, Vitaly believes that he wasted his time on this earth because he could not save his family. The man does not want to accept the fact that there are facts that do not depend on him.
When asked by journalists whether he regretted his action, Kaloev answered without hesitation: “If you did something for the sake of your family, then you can’t regret it, otherwise you’ll quickly go downhill.” When they asked how he felt about the fact that Peter Nielsen had three children left, Kaloev said this: “His wife watches and rejoices at how her children are growing, grandparents are happy that their grandchildren are strong and healthy, but who should I be happy about? »
While in the position of Deputy Minister, Kaloev accepted everyone in need and tried to help; many requests came from places of imprisonment. Today Vitaly is retired and most of all wants to be left alone. In addition, the man has heart problems and recently underwent bypass surgery.
The only thing he wants is to get to Moscow on Victory Day, take a photo of his father, who was an artilleryman, and join the Immortal Regiment.
The fate of Vitaly Kaloev was tragic. He lost his entire family in a plane crash. His wife and two children died. They flew by plane to Spain, where Vitaly Kaloev was working at that time. The architect himself blamed the Swiss dispatcher for the incident, whom he then killed. The story happened 16 years ago, and now Vitaly got married for the second time.
Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time: about the wedding
Vitaly Kaloev did not talk about his wife, but he did not hide anything. His new chosen one’s name is Irina, and the wedding took place according to the Ossetian rite. Kaloev explained his choice not to go to the registry office by saying that at the registry office you only receive a piece of paper. She means nothing to him. And so relatives come, everyone knows. Vitaly said that he wanted to start a family and asked Irina for her consent.
Even before the ceremony itself, it is necessary to collect the bride price. And the Ossetian wedding itself takes place both in the house of the bride and in the house of the groom. Usually this is a mass celebration with the participation of more than 200 people, acquaintances, friends and relatives. At such a celebration, fun always reigns; any uninvited neighbor or acquaintance can come to it, and they have no right to refuse him. At a celebration you can always see a large table with food and sweets. It has also become a tradition to have wild boar on the festive table. But the most important component remains the three pies, which symbolize water, sun and sky.
Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time: a film is being made about Vitaly Kaloev
A film based on the events of that distant 2002 has already been released. It was called “Consequences” and was released in 2017. But he disappointed Vitaly Kaloev. There are too many inconsistencies and untruths. The film turned out to be absolutely uninteresting for Vitaly, and a coincidence of circumstances made the tragedy to blame.
Now, in the new film “Unforgiven,” they are going to show the story more realistically and listen to the hero’s comments. Let us remind you that he now lives in North Ossetia; he was released from prison in 2007, early. As he says, the pain from the tragedy has not gone away. It has only become duller and is not expressed so clearly. In order to reliably recreate the events shown in the film, the director personally met with Vitaly. And the main character was played by Dmitry Nagiyev.
Vitaly Kaloev married a second time: more about the tragedy and fate
Two planes crashed over Lake Constance. In 2004, Kaloev killed Skyguide airline dispatcher Peter Nielsen, considering him to be responsible for the tragedy. He himself confessed to the crime and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Vitaly himself was born on January 15, 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz).
And in 1991 he got married. Then his family died in a plane crash. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for a year, where his condition was never analyzed. By the way, the common people were for Vitaly’s rightness. And his words at the present time prove that he is in full mental health. In 2014, he married for the second time, but has no children. The architect recently celebrated his anniversary; he turned 60 years old. On this day he received the award “For the Glory of Ossetia”. When asked why he killed the dispatcher, Vitaly replies that his children and grandchildren live happily, and I will no longer have grandchildren or children.
Next year, the Hollywood film “478” will be released, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger will play the role of Ossetian Vitaly Kaloev. The film is based on a plane crash over Lake Constance, in which Vitaly’s wife and children died, and the murder of dispatcher Peter Nielsen, whom Kaloev considered guilty of the death of people close to him. In connection with the upcoming release of the film, Vitaly Kaloev spoke with journalists, told what he expected from the film and shared the circumstances of this high-profile case.
In 2002, Vitaly Kaloev lost his family in a plane crash over Lake Constance.
Due to an error by an employee of the air traffic control company Skyguide, two planes collided, killing 71 people, including Kaloyev’s wife and two children.
478 days later he killed air traffic controller Peter Nielsen and spent the next four years in a Swiss prison.
13 years later, a film was made about those events in the United States with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. This is a drama about a man whose life was destroyed overnight. The prototype of Schwarzenegger's hero rarely communicates with journalists, but Vitaly Kaloev found time to talk about his fate.
Now he will have more free time. He recently celebrated his sixtieth birthday and retired. For eight years he worked as Deputy Minister of Construction of North Ossetia. He was appointed to this post shortly after his early release from a Swiss prison.
“Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev, whose fate is known on all continents of the globe, was awarded the Medal “For the Glory of Ossetia,” reports the website of the Ministry of Construction and Architecture of the republic. “On the day of his 60th birthday, he received this highest award from the hands of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Boris Borisovich Dzhanaev.”
News from Hollywood and Vladikavkaz came in the second half of January with a difference of less than two weeks. “The film is based on real events: the plane crash in July 2002 and what happened 478 days later,” says the profile site imdb.com.
Vitaly's wife Svetlana and their children, eleven-year-old Konstantin and four-year-old Diana, died in the plane crash. They all flew to the head of the family in Spain, where Kaloev designed houses.
And on February 22, 2004, his attempt to talk to Peter Nielsen, an employee of the air traffic control company Skyguide, ended in the murder of the dispatcher on the threshold of his own home in the Swiss town of Kloten: twelve blows with a pocket knife.
“I knocked. “Nilsen came out,” Kaloev told Komsomolskaya Pravda reporters in March 2005. “I first motioned for him to invite me into the house.” But he slammed the door.
I called again and told him: Ich bin Russland. I remember these words from school. He said nothing. I took out photographs that showed the bodies of my children. I wanted him to look at them. But he pushed my hand away and sharply gestured for me to get out... Like a dog: get out.
Well, I said nothing, I was offended. Even my eyes filled with tears. I extended my hand to him with the photographs for the second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped me on the hand and the pictures flew off. And it started from there.”
Later, Skyguide's guilt in the plane crash was recognized by the court, and several of Nielsen's colleagues received suspended sentences. Kaloev was sentenced to eight years, but was released early in November 2008.
In Vladikavkaz, Deputy Minister Kaloev led federal and international projects: the television tower on Bald Mountain - beautiful, with a cable car, a rotating observation deck and a restaurant - and the Caucasian Music and Cultural Center named after Valery Gergiev, designed in the workshop of Norman Foster.
Vitaly Kaloev speaks more modestly and harshly about personal achievements: “I think that I lived my life in vain: I could not save my family.
What depended on me is the second question.” Vitaly avoids detailed judgments about what does not depend on him. The film "478" is no exception. Kaloev, in principle, appreciates Arnold Schwarzenegger for his roles as “big, kind men.” At the same time, the prototype is confident: Schwarzenegger (Victor in the film) will play what is written in the script, from which Vitaly does not expect anything good.
“If it were at the everyday level, there would be one question. But here is Hollywood, politics, ideology, relations with Russia,” he says.
The main thing Vitaly asks is: there is no need to show that he fled somewhere, like in a European film based on the same plot. “He came openly, he left openly, he didn’t hide from anyone. Everything is in the case materials, everything is reflected.”
The authors of the Hollywood film assure that in the role of Victor, Schwarzenegger will reveal himself in a new way - not as “the last action hero,” but as a purely dramatic artist. Actually, if you follow real events, it won’t work out any other way. “At ten in the morning I was at the scene of the tragedy,” Kaloev testifies. - I saw all these bodies - I froze in tetanus and could not move. A village near Uberlingen, the school had its headquarters there. And nearby, at an intersection, as it turned out later, my son fell. I still can’t forgive myself for driving nearby and not feeling anything, not recognizing him.”
To the question “maybe you need to forgive yourself more?” there is no direct answer. There is a reflection on what brought Vitaly Kaloev fame “on all continents of the globe”: “If a person did something for the sake of his loved ones and relatives, he cannot regret it later. And you can’t feel sorry for yourself. If you feel sorry for yourself for half a second, you will go down, you will sink. Especially when you are sitting: there is nowhere to rush, there is no communication, all sorts of thoughts creep into your head - this, and this, and this. God forbid you feel sorry for yourself.”
About Peter Nielsen’s family, where there are three children left, Vitaly said eight years ago: “His children are growing up healthy, cheerful, his wife is happy with her children, his parents are happy with their grandchildren. Who should I be happy about?”
It seems that most of all Kaloev feels sorry for the German volunteers and police officers from the summer of 2002: “My instincts became sharper to the point that I began to understand what the Germans were talking about among themselves, without knowing the language. I wanted to participate in the search work - they tried to send me away, but it didn’t work. They gave us an area further away where there were no bodies. I found some things, plane wreckage. I understood then, and I understand now, that they were right. They really couldn’t gather the required number of policemen in time - who was there, they took away half of them: some fainted, some did something else.”
The Germans, according to Vitaly, “are generally very sincere people, simple.” “I hinted that I would like to erect a monument in the place where my girl fell, - instantly one German woman began to help and began collecting funds,” says Kaloev. And he immediately returns to the days of the search: “I put my hands on the ground - I tried to understand where the soul remained: in this place, in the ground - or flew away somewhere. I moved my hands - some roughness. He began to take out the glass beads that were on her neck. I started collecting it and then showed it to people. Later, one architect made a common monument there - with a torn string of beads.”
Vitaly Kaloev is trying to remember everyone who helped him.
It turns out not quite: “A lot of guys from everywhere gave money, for example, to my older brother Yuri, so that he would come to Switzerland once again and visit me.”
For two years, every month they sent “a hundred local money in an envelope to buy cigarettes” to Kaloyev’s cell; on the envelope is the letter W, the secret of which the grateful recipient still wants to know.
Special thanks - naturally, to Taimuraz Mamsurov, the head of North Ossetia at that time: “I appointed him to the ministry here, helped there. To not be afraid to come, as it was believed, to a criminal, a murderer, for trial in Zurich, to support him, was worth a lot for a leader of such rank.” Special thanks go to Aman Tuleyev, governor of the Kemerovo region: “Three or four times he simply gave money, part of his salary. And in Moscow he also gave me so that I could dress up a little.”
And the letters, Kaloev recalls, came from everywhere - from Russia, Europe, Canada and Australia. “Even from Switzerland itself I received two letters: the authors apologized very much to me for what happened. When I was released, they said that I could take 15 kilograms with me. I went through the letters, removed the envelopes - there was still more than twenty kilos of mail alone. They looked and said: “Okay, take both the mail and your things.”
“The Swiss deported Kaloev quietly and unnoticed.
“I arrived, I didn’t expect that I would be greeted so warmly in Moscow. Maybe it was unnecessary - but in any case it’s nice,” says Vitaly Kaloev eight years later.
“It is impossible to teach how to live after this,” he assures when it comes to the relatives of those killed in the plane crash over Sinai. - The pain may have dulled a little, but it does not go away. You can force yourself into work, you have to work - at work a person is distracted: you work, you solve people’s problems... But there is no recipe. I still haven't recovered. But there is no need to give up. If you need to cry, cry, but it’s better alone: no one saw me with tears, I didn’t show them anywhere. Maybe, perhaps, on the very first day. We must live with the destiny that is destined for us. Live and help people."
Receptions with Deputy Minister Kaloyev on personal matters, of course, practically did not stop for all eight years: national tradition plus the status of a famous fellow countryman. Ask for money for medicine, building materials for repairs, to arrange a high-tech operation for someone,” Vitaly lists. - I know both my colleague ministers and their deputies - you turn to them. It didn't always work out, but something did work out. Forty to fifty percent.” The schools that received the least refusals were those from which they came for new windows or major repairs. Or even a lecture from the Deputy Minister - “for high school students, about what principles should be in a person’s life.”
A separate line includes calls to Kaloyev from the colonies. “I don’t know how they found out my phone number. “Can you send me some cigarettes?” - Of course, I'll send it. There was a man named Kuznetsov, he knocked down an Uzbek with one blow in St. Petersburg when he began to pester his son. They organized a teleconference, I came out in support of him.”
Now, most of all, Vitaly wants to be left alone: “I want to live as a private person - that’s it, I don’t even go to work.” First, the heart: bypass surgery. Secondly, Vitaly got married last year, thirteen years after the tragedy. The only thing he would like “from the public” is to come to Moscow on Victory Day, to join the “Immortal Regiment” with a portrait of his father: Konstantin Kaloev, artilleryman.
“I was provoked a lot on the topic of how, for example, Bashkiria, where most of those killed on that plane are from, differs from Ossetia, Ossetia from central Russia,” says Vitaly. - They meant, of course, to lead to conversations about blood feud and similar things. I always answered this way: it is absolutely no different, because we are all Russians. A person who loves his family, his children, will do anything for them. There are many people like me in Russia. If I had not gone and completed this path - I just wanted to talk to him, accept an apology - then after death I would not have had a place next to my family. I wouldn't want to be buried next to them. I wouldn't be worthy of it. And for them we are all Russians anyway. Incomprehensible, scary Russians.”
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 subsequent story of blood feud formed the basis of several works of art.
How events developed on the night of the collision, why most of those killed that night should not have ended up in the sky and how the investigation took place - in the Izvestia article.
Random passengers
The bulk of the Tu-154 passengers were a group of children from a UNESCO specialized school for gifted children located in Bashkiria. All of them received holiday packages to Spain for their good studies.
This group was supposed to fly the day before, but missed the flight. Bashkir Airlines, at the request of the travel company accompanying the group, urgently organized a charter flight for the group. The airline also offered tickets for this flight to other passengers waiting to fly to Spain - a total of eight tickets were purchased. Three of them were purchased by the Kaloyev family - 44-year-old Svetlana was flying to Barcelona with her children - four-year-old Diana and 10-year-old Kostya.
Waiting for them in Spain was their father, Vitaly Kaloev, the former head of the construction department in Vladikavkaz, who in 1999 went to Spain under a contract to work as an architect. The day before, he handed over another project to the customer. Svetlana and her children lived in North Ossetia; they flew to Barcelona via Moscow, where she bought a ticket for a Bashkir Airlines flight.
In addition to the first and second pilots, the crew included an airline inspector - a 1st class pilot, who during this flight had to evaluate the actions of the PIC Alexander Gross as part of the standard inspection procedure. In addition to the flight attendants, there were three more airline employees in the cabin of the plane: Shamil Rakhmatullin, aircraft technician Yuri Penzin and flight manager Artem Gusev, who accompanied the flight.
Late in the evening of July 1, the planes found themselves in the airspace over the German Lake Constance - despite the fact that this was German territory, flight control here was transferred to the private air traffic control company Skyguide, located in Switzerland.
Control room
There was one specialist on duty at the control center at that moment - 34-year-old Peter Nielsen. The second dispatcher, with Nielsen’s consent, went on a break at that moment, and two dispatch terminals were left in the care of Nielsen and the assistant who remained with him.
In addition, as the investigation subsequently established, part of the control equipment, which is supposed to inform dispatchers about dangerous proximity between aircraft, was under maintenance that night.
When it became clear that the planes were moving on intersecting courses, another dispatcher working in Karlsruhe tried to draw the attention of his colleague to the dangerous situation. He tried to contact Nielsen by phone 11 times, but one of the phone lines was also under maintenance and the backup was out of order. For the same reason, Nielsen himself could not ask Friedrichshafen Airport to take over another, third flight that was delayed. Negotiations with the commander of this aircraft a few minutes before the disaster would not allow Nielsen to hear messages from the Boeing and Tu-154 pilots.
Nielsen himself noticed the approach of two planes moving on opposite courses too late. He gave the first message to the commander of the Tu-154 with the requirement to lower the altitude less than a minute before the collision. However, at this time, the TCAS-RA collision warning system had already activated in the cockpit of the second aircraft.
In the cockpit
The TCAS system was created specifically to warn pilots about dangerous approaches in a situation where, for some reason, this was not done by the controller. In order for the system to work, it is necessary that the second aircraft also has its sensor - after which each of the airliners receives an agreed signal about the maneuver that must be performed to prevent a collision.
According to international regulations, all aircraft certified to carry 19 passengers or more must be equipped with the system. TCAS was installed on both the Tu-154 and the German Boeing. But because the controller tried to prevent the collision too late, his orders conflicted with TCAS commands.
Almost immediately after Nielsen contacted the captain of the Bashkir Airlines plane and demanded to descend, TCAS gave the command to the Russian airliner to begin climbing, and to the German airliner, on the contrary, to descend. The Boeing commander, who had not received any orders from Nielsen, carried out the computer command. The commander of the Tu-154 at that moment was already carrying out a similar order from the dispatcher and did not listen to the computer. At the same time, the crew of the German cargo plane reported their actions to the ground, but Nielsen, who was busy at that moment in negotiations with the third board, did not hear this message.
Two planes simultaneously went into a descent on opposite courses.
Photo: Global Look Press/Anvar Galeev
Torn Necklace
The Boeing and Tu-154 pilots saw each other in the last seconds - the planes collided at a right angle, while the Boeing's tail stabilizer hit the middle of the passenger plane's fuselage, causing it to fall apart in the air. Having lost its tail control, the Boeing lost control and also crashed to the ground.
The disaster occurred around 23.30 local time, but the first reports about it began to arrive after midnight. On the morning of July 2, Vitaly Kaloev, who was waiting for his family in Barcelona, learned about what had happened. On the same day, he flew to Switzerland, and from there went to the German city of Uberlingen, near which the disaster occurred.
Having informed the police in the cordon that his wife and children were in the crashed plane, Kaloev joined the search efforts at the crash site. He later told the National Geographic TV channel that he himself found his daughter, four-year-old Diana, first seeing her torn beads on the ground, and then discovering the child’s body. It was this image that formed the basis of the memorial installed at the site of the tragedy and called “The Torn Necklace.”
The book “Collision”, also from the words of Vitaly Kaloyev, describes another version of the development of events - during the search operation he was brought to the place where the body was found for identification, where he saw the decoration lying to the side.
The investigation into the circumstances of the crash was carried out by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation. In May 2004, the bureau's conclusion was published. It said that the Skyguide air traffic control company, which failed to ensure air traffic safety, and its controller were to blame for the collision. In addition, the document noted that the Tu-154 pilots performed a maneuver contrary to the requirements of the TCAS system, and the integration of the system itself was incomplete, and the instructions for it were not standardized.
Bashkir Airlines also sued the Federal Republic of Germany, in whose airspace the collision occurred. In 2006, the district court in the Lake Constance city of Konstanz ruled that transferring aircraft control 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 Germany, and subsequently the dispute between Germany and Bashkir Airlines was settled out of court.
In September 2007, a court decision was made in the case of eight Skyguide employees - four of the accused were acquitted, four were found guilty of causing death by negligence. Three of them received suspended sentences, one was sentenced to a fine.
Murder
At first, the identity of the dispatcher who was on duty at the time of the disaster was not revealed. Subsequently, representatives of the Skyguide company told reporters that Peter Nielsen was deeply shocked by the tragedy. Shortly after the collision, he took a long leave, returned to the company a few months later, but moved to an office job and never worked in air traffic control again.
Almost two years after the disaster, but before the publication of the official conclusion of the commission of investigation, on February 24, 2004, a gray-haired man dressed all in black approached his house and tried to “attract the attention” of the owner. Nielsen, whose wife and three children were in the house, came out to him. After a short conversation, the man stabbed him several times and fled the crime scene.
The police immediately stated that they “do not exclude” the possibility of revenge against the dispatcher for the disaster over Lake Constance, and the dispatch company, until all the circumstances were clarified, strengthened the security of the remaining employees. Vitaly Kaloev was soon detained on suspicion of murder. He told investigators that he wanted to get an apology from the dispatcher. According to Kaloyev, he showed Nielsen a photograph of his dead family, but Nielsen knocked the photographs out of his hands and, according to some sources, laughed. Kaloev does not remember what happened after this.
In October 2005, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to eight years in prison; in 2006, the prison term was reduced, and in 2007, Kaloyev was released early for good behavior and sent to Russia. In North Ossetia, Vitaly Kaloev was greeted as a hero. A year later, in 2008, he took the post of Deputy Minister of Construction of the Republic.
"Clash" and "Aftermath"
Several documentaries were made about the circumstances of the disaster in Russia and abroad.
In April 2017, the feature film “Consequences,” based on the events of 2002–2004, was released in the United States. The role of the main character, whose prototype was Vitaly Kaloev, was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. After the premiere, Kaloev himself criticized the film for a number of inaccuracies and distortions.
At the same time, in April 2017, the book “Clash: The Candid Story of Vitaly Kaloev” was published in Russia. In it, from the words of Vitaly Kaloyev, the circumstances of the search operation and his last meeting with dispatcher Nielsen are described.
AdvertisingThe fate of architect Vitaly Kaloev from Ossetia was tragic: he lost his entire family in a plane crash. His wife and two children died. They flew by plane to Spain, where Vitaly Kaloev was working at that time.
The architect himself blamed the Swiss dispatcher for the incident, whom he then killed. The story happened 16 years ago, and now Vitaly got married for the second time.
Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: about the family
In 1991, Kaloev married Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva (born 1958).
Svetlana graduated from the Faculty of Economics of SOGU in 1983, receiving a degree in economics. She made a career, going from an ordinary bank employee to the head of a department. For some time she worked as director of the commercial bank Adamon Bank.
At the time of the meeting with Kaloev and right up to the disaster, Svetlana worked as an economist and deputy director for finance at the Daryal brewery.
In the marriage, the Kaloevs had two children - son Konstantin (born on November 19, 1991 in Vladikavkaz, was named after his paternal grandfather) and daughter Diana (born on March 7, 1998 in the same place, the name was chosen by Konstantin). Konstantin studied at Vladikavkaz school No. 5, where he managed to complete five classes. He was interested in paleontology and astronautics.
Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: tragedy of 2002
By July 2002, Kaloev had already been working in Spain for two years. He completed the construction of a cottage near Barcelona, handed over the object to the customer and waited for his family, whom he had not seen for nine months.
Svetlana and her children had already arrived in Moscow by that time, but could not buy a plane ticket and only three hours before departure at the airport she was offered last-minute tickets to board the same Bashkir Airlines plane that later crashed in the sky above Lake Constance.
The collision over Lake Constance was a major aviation accident that occurred on July 1, 2002.
The Bashkir Airlines (BAL) Tu-154M airliner, operating flight BTC 2937 on the Moscow-Barcelona route, collided in the air with a DHL Boeing 757-200PF cargo aircraft, operating flight DHX 611 on the Bahrain-Bergamo-Brussels route.
The collision occurred near the small town of Uberlingen near Lake Constance (Germany). All 71 people on board both planes were killed - 2 on the Boeing (both pilots) and 69 on the Tu-154 (9 crew members and 60 passengers, including 52 children).
Despite the fact that both planes were over German territory, air traffic control at this location was carried out by a private Swiss company, Skyguide.
At 21:35:32, flights BTC 2937 and DHX 611 collided almost at right angles at an altitude of 10,634 meters (FL350). The Boeing's vertical tail stabilizer hit the fuselage of the Tu-154 and broke it in half. While falling, the Tu-154 broke into four parts in the air, which fell in the vicinity of Uberlingen. The Boeing, which had lost its stabilizer, lost control and, having lost both engines during the fall, at 21:37 crashed to the ground 7 kilometers from the Tu-154 and was completely destroyed.
Everyone on board both planes (69 people on the Tu-154 and 2 on the Boeing) were killed. Despite the fact that some debris from both liners fell on residential buildings (in their courtyards), no one died on the ground...
On July 2, 2002, having learned about what had happened, Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and from there to Germany to Uberlingen, where the disaster occurred. At first, the police did not want to let Vitaly into the crash site, but when he explained that his wife and children were there, they let him through.
According to Vitaly, his daughter Diana was found three kilometers from the plane crash site. According to a documentary on the National Geographic channel, Kaloev himself participated in the search work and first found Diana’s torn beads, and then her body.
All three were buried in Vladikavkaz.
Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: prison punishment
In the summer of 2003, Kaloev, together with Yulia Fedotova, the mother of another girl who died in a plane crash, came to Skyguide Airlines.
According to company employees, during a funeral ceremony in Uberlingen dedicated to the anniversary of the plane crash, “one of the relatives - a man with a black beard” - behaved very “excitedly” and terribly frightened the head of the company, Allen Rosier. After which this person allegedly came to the Skyguide office, where, while communicating with the company’s employees, he asked several times: “Is the dispatcher to blame for what happened?” and sought a meeting with Peter Nielsen, who was at the control panel that evening.
On February 24, 2004, Peter Nielsen was killed. The murder took place on Nielsen's doorstep in the presence of his wife and three children. The main version of the murder considered by the Swiss police was Kaloev’s revenge. Kaloev himself did not admit his guilt, but he did not deny it either - when testifying, he stated that he only remembers that he came to Nielsen, showed him photographs of his family and demanded an apology. Nilsen hit Kaloyev on the hand and knocked out the photographs, after which Kaloyev, in his words, suffered a memory loss.
Kaloev repeated that he did not repent at all of what he had done. “Peter Nielsen was rewarded for his behavior. In addition to him, SkyGuide director Alain Rossier should also be given credit,” said Kaloev.
On November 8, 2007, by a court decision, he was released for good behavior after serving part of his sentence. On November 13, Kaloev arrived in North Ossetia, where he was warmly greeted at the airport.
Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: today
In North Ossetia, Kaloev was appointed Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Policy of the republic.
On the day of his sixtieth birthday he retired, a few days before he was awarded the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia”.
In 2014, Vitaly married a second time. Taimuraz Mansurov, the former head of North Ossetia and a friend of Kaloev, told reporters about this, but refused to elaborate: “This is not a topic for discussion for us. His wife is a good woman and takes care of him. They are together. What happens next is none of my business. He lives in the same house as before the tragedy.”
Vitaly Kaloev did not talk about his wife, but he did not hide anything. His new chosen one’s name is Irina, and the wedding took place according to the Ossetian rite. Kaloev explained his choice not to go to the registry office by saying that at the registry office you only receive a piece of paper. She means nothing to him. And so relatives come, everyone knows. Vitaly said that he wanted to start a family and asked Irina, she agreed.
Even before the ceremony itself, it is necessary to collect the bride price, and the Ossetian wedding itself takes place immediately in both the bride’s house and the groom’s house. Usually this is a mass celebration with the participation of more than 200 people, acquaintances, friends and relatives. At such a celebration, fun always reigns; any uninvited neighbor or acquaintance can come to it, and they have no right to refuse him. At a celebration you can always see a large table with food and sweets. The presence of a wild boar on the festive table has also become a tradition, but the most important component remains three pies, which symbolize water, sun and sky.
In the new film “Unforgiven” they are going to show the story of Vital Kaloev more realistically and listen to the hero’s comments. Let us remind you that he now lives in North Ossetia; he was released from prison in 2007, early. As he says, the pain from the tragedy has not gone away. It has only become duller and is not expressed so brightly. In order to reliably recreate the events shown in the film, the director personally met with Vitaly, and the main character was played by Dmitry Nagiyev.
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