Plane crash over Lake Constance: causes, investigation, consequences. Unforgiven

Who could not come to terms with the loss of his family in a passenger plane crash over Lake Constance July 1, 2002.

On July 1, 2002, a cargo Boeing-757 of DHL airlines and a passenger Tu-154M of Bashkir Airlines collided in the skies over Germany. The disaster claimed the lives of 71 people. Two Boeing pilots, nine Tu-154 crew members and 60 passengers, 52 of whom were children, were killed.

On that fateful night, air traffic controller Peter Nielsen was left alone on duty. According to some reports, his colleague fell asleep at work in violation of the rules. When a cargo plane and a passenger jet were in the skies over Lake Constance, Nielsen noticed that their routes intersected. But seconds were already counting.

The air traffic controller gave the Tu-154 pilots commands to descend, and they immediately began to carry out his instructions. At the same time, an automatic proximity warning system (TCAS) was activated in the cockpits of both aircraft, which commanded the passenger airliner to gain altitude, and the cargo airliner, on the contrary, to descend. The Russian pilots decided to continue following the dispatcher's instructions, but the cargo plane began to descend at the TCAS command. The pilots informed Nielsen about this, but he did not hear it.

At 21:35 at a height of 10.6 meters, the Boeing crashed into the fuselage of the Tu-154. A passenger plane broke into four parts in the sky. The cargo side has lost control. They fell seven kilometers from each other.

On board the deceased passenger liner was Svetlana Kaloyeva with her children - a ten-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter. On a Bashkir Airlines plane flying from Ufa to Spain, they flew to the father of the family, who at that time had already been working there for two years under a contract in construction company. The family was planning to spend a vacation together.

It was originally planned that the wife and children would fly out on June 29, but by this time they did not have time to prepare all the documents necessary for the trip. When everything was collected, at the airport they were offered a flight with children from Bashkiria, who were heading on vacation to Spain as a reward for excellent studies by the UNESCO Committee. There were three empty seats on board.

Husband and father dead Vitaly Kaloev himself later arrived at the scene of the tragedy. It was reported that he was the first to find his daughter's torn beads, and three kilometers later - her body. However, the author of the book “Clash. The frank story of Vitaly Kaloev” Ksenia Kaspari told RT that he did not participate in the search, but saw photographs of the bodies found and recognized his daughter in one of the first ones. The writer noted that she fell into a tree and seemed almost undamaged.

As the Kaloyevs’ relatives say, a year and a half after the tragedy, the head of the family was still unable to come to terms with the loss of his loved ones. He quit his job abroad and moved to Russia.

No one took responsibility for what happened. No one asked the relatives of the victims for forgiveness. The dispatcher himself refused to admit his guilt. After the plane crash, he was suspended from work, and Swiss investigators conducted a criminal investigation into the SkyGuide company and its management.

In May 2004, Germany published the results of an investigation, which concluded that Swiss air traffic controllers were to blame for the plane collision. Then Skyguide was forced to admit guilt, and two years after the crash, the director of the dispatch company nevertheless apologized to the families of the victims. Three years later, all those responsible were sentenced.

But by February 2004, Kaloev had received neither an apology nor punishment for the perpetrators, so he saw lynching as the only way to restore justice.

Obsessed with a thirst for revenge, 48-year-old Kaloev flew to Zurich on February 18, 2004. He checked into a hotel in the town of Kloten, where 36-year-old SkyGuide air traffic controller Peter Nielsen lived with his family. Some media reported that the Russian had been watching the house of his future victim for several days and was looking for the right moment to attack.

The choice fell on the evening of February 24th. Kaloev approached the house and knocked on the door. The unsuspecting Nielsen went out onto the terrace with his wife and two children, who became interested in the late guest. There was a third child left in the house. In front of members of the Nielsen family stood a Russian man holding photographs of his dead wives and children. “Look,” he said in Spanish and handed the dispatcher the pictures. But he pushed me away unexpected guest, knocking the photographs out of his hands. According to some reports, Nielsen even laughed.

What happened next, according to Kaloev, he does not remember: a veil of anger overwhelmed him, tears flowed from his eyes. But the continuation of the story is known to investigators. Seeing the pictures on the ground, the Russian took out a folding knife and stabbed the man standing in front of him in the chest, stomach and throat. Nielsen died on the spot from 12 stab wounds.

Kaloev didn’t even try to hide. He left, leaving a knife in the yard of the house, which police found the next day. Law enforcement officers paid attention to the testimony of the wife and neighbors of the murdered man, who claimed that the criminal spoke with a Slavic accent. Then an assumption was made - the murder was committed by one of the relatives of the deceased Tu-154 passengers out of revenge.

Kaloyev was detained almost immediately after the crime in the hotel. Investigator Pascal Gossner then said that the detainee attracted attention during a memorial ceremony in the city of Uberlinger in August a year earlier - he asked everyone about who exactly was guilty of what happened.

The killer himself told investigators that he wanted to get an apology from the dispatcher.

In October 2005 Supreme Court Zurich found Kaloev guilty of murder and sentenced him to eight years to be served in a convict prison (the Swiss equivalent of a maximum security colony). As Swissinfo notes, the judges concluded that the murder was premeditated, since the perpetrator did not stop after the first blows, but continued to kill Nielsen.

It can hardly be said that Kaloev repented of his deeds. A RIA Novosti correspondent reported that during the sentencing, the defendant even refused to stand up. “I am accused of burying my children. Why am I going to get up? - he said.

However, prison term for the dispatcher's killer was much shorter than expected. Already on November 8, 2007, the Supreme Court of Switzerland decided to release Kaloyev.

"I am very happy about it. This, of course, is a fair act, because the person went through terrible torment and committed a crime as a result of incredible torment. And this is an act of humanism,” lawyer Genrikh Padva, whose law office representatives participated in Kaloev’s defense, told Mayak radio.

Five days after his release, Kaloev returned to Moscow, and the next day he flew to his native Vladikavkaz. Hundreds of North Ossetians and about a hundred journalists gathered at the airport. The head of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mansurov, met him right on the runway.

“I knew that my family was waiting for me, that my fellow countrymen were rooting for me, but I didn’t even suspect that the meeting would be so large-scale. I even felt uncomfortable from such attention. So many people were happy about my return,” Kaloev told Gazeta.Ru at the time.

Just two months after his release, the chairman of the government of North Ossetia appointed a former Russian prisoner as deputy minister of construction and architecture of the republic.

Kaloev's story inspired both Russian and Western directors. On April 7, 2017, the film “Consequences” was released in American theaters, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the story, the main character's wife and daughter die in a plane crash due to the fault of air traffic controller Paul (Scoot McNary). Paul and his family have to hide from public anger and in particular from the main character, who wants to find the dispatcher at all costs.

Kaloev himself said that he was disappointed after watching this film. According to him, in addition to Schwarzenegger's performance, he was upset by the fact that throughout the film main character trying to evoke pity for himself. At the same time, Kaloev himself thirsts not for pity, but for justice.

He suggested that the creators of the film deliberately tried to avoid the mistakes of the airline management, making the air traffic controller a victim of circumstances. “The film is absolutely uninteresting,” summed up Kaloev.

IN Russian version in the film based on this story, the role of Kaloev is played by Dmitry Nagiyev. The film “Unforgiven” was released only in 2018, although work on its creation began back in 2016. As director Sarik Andreasyan noted, before starting work on the film, Kaloev himself got acquainted with the script and “gave his blessing.”

The film “Unforgiven” about the fate of an Ossetian architect convicted of lynching became the leader of the Russian box office. Why?

It’s unlikely just because of the content of the picture itself. Every man, reflecting on this story, asks himself the question: “What would I do in his place?” Kaloev himself passed sentence on the man whom he considered responsible for the death of those closest to him - he made his choice and carried it out. How fair was his revenge?

"AiF" decided to talk about what he learned from himself Vitaly Kaloev.

In July 2002, the Bashkir Airlines Tu-154, on which the Kaloev family was flying, collided in the air with a Boeing 757 cargo plane. The disaster, in which more than 70 people died (including 52 children), occurred near Lake Constance in Germany. The reason was the incorrect actions of a 34-year-old dispatcher of the Swiss airline Skyguide (translated from English as “sky guide”) Peter Nielsen, which regulated air service in the area - gave commands to the pilots. Due to inattention or fatigue, he realized too late that the planes’ courses could intersect, and then with his mistakes, confusing right and left, he made the situation irreversible. However, the management of Skyguide from the very beginning began to deny their guilt, hinting that everything happened because the Russian pilots allegedly did not know English. Nielsen also did not admit guilt.

The meeting between Kaloev and Nielsen became fatal for both - the Ossetian stabbed the dispatcher to death, and he himself ended up in a Swiss prison.

In 2007, I met Vitaly Kaloev at Domodedovo, where he flew after his release, and a couple of days later I visited him in Vladikavkaz. We spoke in the large and comfortable house that he designed and built for the family. Kaloev smoked, his fingers trembled slightly. And he explained: “I only demanded that the people from the airline apologize to the relatives of the victims, as they should be, as human beings. But they lied and claimed that they had nothing to do with it...”

Before the tragedy, he was not an unknown person from whom one can expect unknown things: he worked as the head of the construction department and, as a civil engineer, had a hand in the construction of many beautiful buildings in Vladikavkaz, including the largest Cathedral of St. George the Victorious in the city (in the late 90s he erected the foundation and first floor of the temple). Since 1999, he has been building residential buildings in Barcelona for immigrants from Ossetia, under a contract with a Spanish company. With my wife Svetlana lived together for 11 years. Son Costa my daughter was 10 Diana- 4 years. He himself turned 46 at the time of the disaster.

The next day after it, Kaloev flew to Zurich, got to the site where the Tu wreckage fell and convinced the police to let him through the cordon. He spent 10 days searching for the remains. On the very first day, I found the torn pearl necklace of Diana’s daughter, then her body. The bodies of his wife and son were found much later.

Vitaly Kaloev among the militias. August 9, 2008 Photo: / Vladimir Kozhemyakin

"If only they would apologize..."

That day in front of me was an extremely tired and exhausted man with a shy, slightly confused smile. Even by own home he walked like a prisoner, hunched over and with his hands behind his back. He broke his fingers in the joints with a crunch when he suddenly fell silent during a conversation, and, upon waking up, he could light up and even remember the funny moments of his Swiss imprisonment. But then he immediately retreated into himself. It was like a compressed spring, and meanwhile the small children of his Ossetian relatives were running carelessly along the corridors. Children's laughter was again heard in his house - but not the same...

“The Swiss brushed me off on the phone like I was an annoying fly,” he recalled. - On the anniversary, I came to Germany to the site of the disaster, approached Skyguide director Alain Rossier, took out photographs of the children’s graves and asked: “If your children were lying like this, how would you talk?” But he didn’t even deign me to answer. Then I came to their residence and said sharply: “You took my family away from me, and now you turn your nose up!” And forced the director to talk to me. He asked: “Are you guilty?” At first he snapped: “No. The pilots should have listened to their safety navigation device, not the controller." “But if your controller had not intervened, the planes might have flown apart?” He nodded: “Yes”... I still forced him to admit his mistake. Achieved what all lawyers and jurists could not do! The German lawyer, who was sitting nearby, jumped up in his chair in surprise when he heard this... Then the director invited me to have lunch together, but I thought: am I going to eat at the same table with the murderers of my children?! And he refused. And other parents agreed, and, as they told me, this Rossier cried in that restaurant. I hoped that his conscience had awakened. But it was not so...".

Then he took out a lawyer's report with a proposal for payment of compensation, drawn up with cynical pettiness: parents for a dead child - 50 thousand francs, a spouse for a spouse - 60 thousand, a child for a parent - 40 thousand. Children (and children) - cheaper.. “I didn’t even look at it. Money in exchange for memory?! I realized: they don’t consider us people! It’s like during an investigation, when they deliberately provoke detainees... The local prosecutor told me politely, without putting words into the protocol: “Here, in Switzerland, raising a child under 10 years old costs 200 thousand francs. And the lives of children themselves have no value here at all.” He was waiting for me to explode, saying, it turns out that your children are priceless, but mine are not even worth asking for forgiveness for their death? But I didn't do it." Then Kaloev showed another letter from Skyguide’s lawyers, in which he was notified that the company had nothing to apologize to him for: “And Rossier did not apologize either. If he had apologized, nothing would have happened.”

At the trial in Switzerland, Kaloev repeated the same thing. He approached Rossier and other Skyguide managers, asking the same question: who is to blame? He never heard an answer.

Vitaly Kaloev with a South Ossetian militia in Java. August 9, 2008 Photo: / Vladimir Kozhemyakin

“I drove him away like a dog!”

The Germans were investigating the collision. Later, the Swiss reluctantly admitted their responsibility for the fact that there were only two people in the control center that night - Nielsen and an assistant, and the rest of the staff various reasons was absent. But no one named Nielsen himself, who worked for himself and his colleague, monitoring the situation behind two terminals at once, as the culprit. He was only temporarily suspended from business, not even punished with a fine, and was sent for psychological rehabilitation.

A few years later, I called Vitaly Kaloev with a question: did he forgive this man? “Just as this dispatcher was for me the murderer of my family, he remains so,” he answered irreconcilably. - What kind of forgiveness can there be if he didn’t even try to apologize? Neither he, nor his relatives, nor his colleagues, until they got it... It’s the same with this airline: its leaders behaved towards me and all the relatives of the victims arrogantly and boorishly, like human garbage. Who prevented them from addressing us as human beings? Then the situation, perhaps, would smooth out, the person would resign himself. But they spat in our faces - so what, we had to wipe it off and endure it?”

First channel

First channel

First channel

A year and seven months after the disaster, he came to the porch of Peter Nielsen’s house. The dispatcher opened the door, but when he saw the guest, he slammed it. “I called again, said in German: “I’m from Russia,” and gestured that I wanted to come in,” Kaloev recalled. - Nielsen finally left the threshold. I handed him an envelope with photographs of the bodies of my children and showed him: look! But he pushed my hand away and reacted with a rude gesture - like, get out! Like a dog who was told: “Get out!” I handed him the photo a second time and said in Spanish: “Look! Don’t these children deserve to at least apologize to them?!” He slapped my hand hard - this time the photographs fell and scattered on the floor. My vision went dark. It seemed to me that the bodies of my children were thrown out of their coffins onto the ground...”

When the photos fell, Kaloev grabbed a small folding Swiss knife with a 10-centimeter blade from his pocket, rushed at Nielsen and, as the official report says, struck him 12 times in the chest, head, legs... As criminologists later said, “he cut his victim on the belts with a penknife.”

Vitaly Kaloev with the President South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity in the center of Java. The third in the frame is a militia member of the South Ossetian armed forces. August 9, 2008 Photo: / Vladimir Kozhemyakin

“Didn’t watch the movie”

He said: “Even before arriving in Switzerland, I told myself: if you don’t want to lose yourself, then you have to go to the end... I have never regretted it. And if I had acted differently, I would not have considered myself worthy of my own guys...” Nielsen is survived by his wife and three children, who, by the way, were in the house at the time of the murder. Kaloev was sentenced to 8 years of strict regime. He served 2 years and was released for good behavior. At home, in Vladikavkaz, he was received as a national hero and until his retirement he worked as Deputy Minister of Construction Policy and Architecture of the republic. On the second day of the “five-day war” in South Ossetia, August 9, 2008, he put me in his Volga and drove me to Dzhava, the village in which the headquarters of the President of the Republic of South Ossetia was located. Eduard Kokoity. He was carrying food and medicine in his trunk for the Ossetian militias.

In 2017, the American film “Consequences” was released with Arnold Schwarzenegger, filmed according to the script based on the story of Kaloev. He himself did not like this “Hollywood”, including because “the main character there puts too much pressure on self-pity.” Kaloev does not want to be pitied. And after the release of “Unforgiven” with Dmitry Nagiyev in leading role he declined to comment at all.

Saying goodbye to Kaloev on the day of the meeting, I asked him to take a photo next to an old dried tree. It seemed symbolic at the time. He repeated: “It’s over. I live only to go to the grave of my family...” After the release of the film “Unforgiven,” I again called him in Vladikavkaz. “I did not watch this film, although I was present at the screening where I was invited,” he said. - I didn’t even read the script that was handed to me, because I don’t want to plunge into this grief. What are you doing now? I'm resting, retired. My family and friends don’t forget, everyone is next to me, thank you.”

When asked about changes in his personal life, he answered: “Come and you’ll see...”. As it recently became known, in 2018 Vitaly Kaloev joined civil marriage with a new wife Irina, their wedding took place according to the Ossetian rite. The dead tree came to life.

Fifteen years have passed since the tragedy occurred in the skies over Germany. The 2002 plane crash over Lake Constance killed 71 people, most of whom were children.

Plane crash

The plane crash occurred in 2002 on the night from the first to the second of July in the area of ​​Lake Constance in the skies over Germany. The collision of two planes claimed the lives of 19 adults and 52 children. Almost all of the victims were passengers of the Russian Tu-154m airliner, on which the children were flying on vacation to Spain. The plane belonged to the Bashkir Airlines company; it was performing a charter flight from Moscow to Spain (Barcelona).

The second plane involved in the collision, a Boeing-757 of the international air transportation company HDL, was flying from Italy (Bergamo) to Belgium (Brussels). There were 57 passengers on board the Tu-154M, of which only five were adults, and 52 were children, as well as 12 crew members.

Airplane passengers

Among those killed in the 2002 plane crash over Lake Constance were many children. This is due to the fact that they were flying to Spain on vacation. Talented students were rewarded with a trip for high academic achievements. The UNESCO Committee provided vouchers for Bashkir children.

Random Events

After the collision over Lake Constance, it became clear that the event was preceded by a whole series of fatal accidents, which could not have been noticed if trouble had not happened. The Bashkir children should not have flown that night at all. By chance, the accompanying adults brought them to the wrong airport. Instead of Domodedovo, where their plane took off for Barcelona, ​​they ended up at Sheremetyevo. Naturally, they missed their flight.

Many schoolchildren who went on vacation were children of high-ranking officials. For example, on board was the fifteen-year-old daughter of the head of administration under the President of Bashkortostan, Leysan Gimaeva.

If there were children from ordinary families in the group, they would probably just go home, missing the plane. The schoolchildren, of course, would be disappointed, but they would still be alive.

However, events developed according to a completely different scenario. Influential parents decided to send a Bashkir Airlines plane to Moscow, which could transport their children to Spain on a charter flight. The head of the airliner's crew was Alexander Gross, who had previously flown to Barcelona and knew the route very well.

After the schoolchildren boarded the plane, it turned out that there were still several empty seats available. The decision was made to sell these seven tickets with lightning speed. So gradually the number of future victims increased.

Four tickets were purchased by the Shislovsky family from Belarus, who missed their flight and were therefore forced to fly others. Three more tickets went to Svetlana Kaloeva, a resident of North Ossetia, with two children, who was flying to her husband Vitaly, who was working under a contract in Spain. After the collision over Lake Constance, the names of the accidental passengers were not immediately clear.

How it was...

On the fateful night before the plane crash over Lake Constance, both airliners that subsequently collided were in the skies over Germany itself, but for some reason the management of their movement was transferred to the Swiss company Skyneid, located in Zurich. IN this center flights, as a rule, only three people worked at night: an assistant and two dispatchers. However, precisely at this terrible night There was only one person on duty. It was Peter Nielsen, who was forced to monitor two terminals at once.

When the controller noticed something was wrong, the planes were already in line at a distance of 36,000 feet, which meant that there were only seconds left before the collision. For what reasons the duty officer discovered the problem so late is unknown, but a plane crash over Lake Constance was already almost inevitable. However, even in this situation it was possible to try to do something to save the situation. But unfortunately, Peter Nelson got it completely wrong. Either he was unprepared for such emergency situations, or he was simply confused... But his erroneous commands led to the death of many people.

Erroneous dispatcher commands

When Peter Nelson realized that the liners' courses were intersecting and they were inexorably approaching each other, he tried to correct the situation. Therefore, he gave the command to the Russian plane to descend. It is worth noting that at this moment the crew themselves noticed the approach of another side from the left side. The pilots were ready to perform a maneuver in order to disperse safely.

However, after a command from the ground controller on board Russian plane The automatic TCAS system was activated, which warns of the danger of approaching. So, she informed about the need to gain altitude.

At the same time, an identical system activated on the Boeing, prompting the pilots to gain altitude. Perhaps the disaster could have been avoided if these commands had been followed on both planes. The co-pilot of the Russian airliner immediately noticed a discrepancy between the dispatcher and TCAS commands, which he immediately reported to the rest of the team. But I received an answer that ground commands would be carried out. Moreover, the order to descend was received again.

Whose mistake caused the tragedy?

It is difficult to blame the pilots for the plane crash over Lake Constance, because they followed commands from the ground, as prescribed by the instructions. Later, the investigation will establish the cause of the disaster - an untimely command from dispatcher Peter Nielsen. He provided erroneous information to the Russian pilots that there was a side to their right. Decoding the black boxes showed that the team was simply misled. The pilots, relying on the dispatcher, considered that there was another plane to their right, which the TCAS system had not detected, because it is no secret that ground-based installations provide more accurate data, and on-board instruments may fail for some reason.

Considering that pilots have only fractions of a second to make important decisions, and confusion in such situations is tantamount to death, the team followed the instructions of the ground attendant. It remains a mystery why none of the pilots informed Peter Nielsen that his command was contradicting the messages of the automatic safety system. Perhaps there was simply not enough time for this.

Airplane collision

After the dispatcher's command, a plane crash over Lake Constance could not be avoided. Both planes were descending. At the same time, the Russian plane carried out the command of Peter Nielsen, and the Boeing operated according to the instructions of the TCAS system. Both teams reported their actions to the ground controller, but Peter Nielsen did not hear one of the commands because they were both communicating at the same time on different frequencies. And if there were several people on duty in the control room at that time, as there should be, the information would have been heard on time.

In the last seconds before the plane crash over Lake Constance, the pilots of the two planes tried as best they could to avoid the collision by deflecting the controls. However, their attempts were in vain. The collision of the airliners occurred almost at a right angle. An HDL cargo plane crashed into a Russian one, causing the Tu-154M to split in half at an altitude of ten kilometers. The wreckage of the liner fell into four parts and scattered in the vicinity of the town of Iberlingen. And the remains of the Boeing were discovered seven kilometers from the Russian airliner.

Air crash investigation

The tragedy over Lake Constance caused long investigations. Since the disaster occurred over Germany, the German Federal Office was in charge of the investigation. The first conclusions of the commission were given only two years later.

The report presented the following reasons why a plane crash occurred over Lake Constance involving a Tu-154 and a Boeing:

1. The air traffic controller failed to correctly ensure the separation of the airliners in a timely manner.
2. The instruction to descend was given too late.

Subsequently, all charges against the pilots were dropped.

During the investigation, a number of other circumstances were revealed. As it turned out, telephone communication equipment and automatic notification of the approach of aircraft to the flight control center were turned off for unknown reasons. The backup telephone lines were also not working. A more responsible dispatcher from the city of Karlsruhe in Germany noticed the approach of the planes and repeatedly tried to call the point where Nielsen was on duty, but all attempts were unsuccessful.

Immediately after the disaster, Peter Nielsen was suspended from work until the causes and circumstances of the tragedy were clarified. As for the Skyguide company, the investigative authorities organized a criminal investigation against it.

Results of the disaster

Immediately after the plane crash, Skyguide blamed the pilots of the Russian airliner for the events. According to them, the crew incorrectly followed the commands because they did not understand the dispatcher’s instructions to English language. Only in 2004 did the German Federal Office publish the official conclusion of the investigation. According to the conclusion, the dispatcher from the Skyguide company was to blame for the collision. Only after the results of the investigation were published, the company admitted its guilt. Only two years later did the director of the company bother to apologize to the families of those who died on that terrible night. And on May 19, 2004, Josef Deiss (President of Sweden) sent Vladimir Putin an official document apologizing for what happened.

It was only in December 2006 that Alain Rossier resigned from his position as director of Skyguide.

And in September 2007, a court in the Swiss town of Bülach convicted four Skyguide employees of negligence in their duties, which led to the tragedy. A total of eight people who worked for the Swiss company were put on trial. The defendants refused to admit their guilt, shifting all responsibility onto Peter Nielsen, who had already died at that time. Yet four managers were found guilty of manslaughter.

All of them were given different punishments. Three workers were given only suspended prison sentences, and one was given only a fine.

Consequences of the 2002 disaster

The series of troubles did not end after the planes crashed. Grief-stricken relatives could not withstand the trials that befell them; some families broke up after the tragedy. The tragedy claimed many lives. The list of those killed in the disaster over Lake Constance initially consisted of the names of 52 children and 19 adults. However, on February 24, 2004, another name was added to the list - Nielsen.

The same dispatcher, through whose fault the cancerous error occurred, was killed by Vitaly Kaloev, whose children and wife accidentally became passengers on the ill-fated flight. The court considered the case for a year. And in October 2005, Kaloyev admitted his guilt, sentencing him to eight years in prison. However, given the difficult mental condition men, as well as all the circumstances of the case, the term was subsequently reduced to five years. Three years later, Kaloyev was released for good behavior, after which he returned to North Ossetia.

Memorial to the victims

At the site of the tragedy in 2004, a memorial was erected to those killed in a plane crash over Lake Constance - a torn string of pearls symbolizes the scattered debris of the plane. The idea for creating such a monument was the pearl necklace of the girl Diana (daughter of that same Kaloev), found at the site of the tragedy.

Almost all victims of the disaster were buried at the Southern Cemetery in Ufa. Their graves were arranged according to how people sat on the plane.

Silent Reminder

Another memorial reminds of that tragedy. In Zurich in 2006, next to the Skyguide building, a monument made of stone and glass was erected in the form of a spiral, along which 72 candles are located, symbolizing the 71 victims of the disaster and one dispatcher.

Disaster film

The terrible tragedy and its further consequences, as well as the act of Vitaly Kaloev, formed the basis of the film “Consequences,” filmed in the USA. Of course, much of it was changed and the action was moved to America, but it was the 2002 plane crash that served as the basis for filming. The main character of the film was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. His name is Roman Melnik, he has been living and working in the USA for a long time. And then his pregnant wife and daughter finally fly to him. That is why a monument to the three will be erected at the grave... As in the real story, the Miller himself finds his daughter’s beads and her body. And also goes crazy in search of those responsible for the tragedy. The company whose dispatcher caused the disaster offers him compensation, but he does not understand why the culprit of the accident is still at large. The miller goes to the dispatcher's house with a knife and everything happens according to the same scenario as in real life. Only a few details were changed by the director, who managed to convey on the screen the incredible experiences of the main character.

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

I don't think time heals. When these memories come flooding in, the person does not put up with it. Not reconciled. For what? Do you understand that people constantly ask themselves this question? For what?
In one night, Vitaly Kaloev lost everything he loved and lived for. His 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 there somewhere else... Who knows. Maybe they live in heaven. He cursed the heavens and waited only for justice.
“It wouldn’t have gotten easier for me, it wouldn’t have gotten any easier at all.” But that attitude, that attitude... It all went beyond the scope. How they lied, how they got out.
Having lost faith in the law and ultimate justice, the man began his own investigation.
- These criminal commands were given by one person. Dispatcher. He could... He could have separated 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 quietly and came.

For a year and a half, Vitaly Kaloev stubbornly followed his trail.
- When I was there a year later, in this company, yes, I asked him then. I say: “Bring him, I want to look at him.” They didn't bring him. I didn’t hide the fact that I was going there. Do you understand? I didn’t hide the fact that I would come to him.
Peter Nielsen died on the threshold of his home, in front of his wife and three children.
- I didn’t tell him anything in German. I just looked at him and realized that a conversation with him would not work. He looked so arrogant, so self-satisfied, arrogant. And he’s like, you know: “Why are you knocking, why are you bothering me?”
- Did he even 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, they probably looked at each other for about two minutes. Who is worth what?
- He asked what do you want?
- Yes, he understood, I’ll explain. He understood who I was. Why did I come?
Kaloev got even with the culprit in the death of his wife and children according to the laws of blood feud. - Maybe I regret one thing - that sometimes I was too strict with the children. That's about it. But no.
For 16 years now 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 entire life.
“I still haven’t come to terms with the fact that my children died. I still haven't come to terms with it. It's still very hard. Very.

Documentary makers are willing to make films about Kaloyev, but without Kaloyev. He does not communicate with journalists, because remembering is painful, and telling is unbearable.
- To be honest, you got me.
16 years of ringing silence and attempts to arrange a meeting.
- There’s nothing left to say. Everything that could be said has already been said.
Maybe because there were no agreed upon questions or a shooting plan, he agreed to let us into his life. To say out loud what I had been silent about for many years.
- So I should just relax, sit down, sit and cry? This is not for me. Every word he says is a verdict to himself. And this will be more than an interview. Public confession of the avenger and hermit Vitaly Kaloev. For the first time, Vitaly Kaloev will break the vow of silence that he kept for 16 years. What signs from above told Kaloyev’s family not to fly on that fateful flight? What actually happened a few minutes before the disaster? How did Vitaly Kaloev himself find, sentence and execute the culprit of the tragedy? What did Peter Nielsen manage to tell 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 Swiss prison and lifelong recluse. Everything that remains behind the scenes of the 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 has parted ways with journalists forever, and has long been on his own path.
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.
- It’s 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. The tall, stately man stoops a little and walks to his car with a bearish gait. - In these parts they believe that mountains show a person as he is. That's probably why for frank conversation Kaloev chose this place - right at the abyss. We got up. Watched. From above. Well, that was when... In that life. The conversation doesn't go well. His look speaks louder than words. The past is reflected in the eyes. We fight too, too. We live. It becomes difficult to breathe. The thick mountain air, it seems, can be cut with a Caucasian dagger. In the oppressive silence, the assistant director's firecracker 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 long as we can... ...to bear this cross.
He has been carrying his cross alone for 16 years now, without complaining or discussing it with anyone. But I no longer have the strength to remain silent. Which means it's time to speak out.
- Actually, when I... ...and was going there, and... ...thought about it, and that’s it, I didn’t think that, for example... ...here are the journalists, and... ...the people, and... these are the ones who care about this the fate of the children, as it were, will stand up for protection, I didn’t think about it at all.
Looking ahead with faded eyes, he remembers his former life. Before the disaster.
- Do you dream about them?
- Well, this is personal already. This is not relevant to today’s conversation, as I say, this is personal. Whether I dream or not, it’s inside me, and it will remain so.
Wife Svetlana. Gives an interview 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 the 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? If you can’t do it yourself, get married and... How? What would it look like? I received my salary. Minus bachelor's, minus income, minus that, and there was nothing left. So get married, and then what?
A naive woman’s question about love only evokes a smile from a descendant of the ancient Alans.
- Love is when you respect a person, when you appreciate him. When you worry about him. Here... You get bored. Well, all this is probably love together.
My heart was calm and calm. The son grew up to be a man. Just three seconds of video that will forever remain in your heart.
- What is the happiest day of your life?
- When 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 raised right from birth. Right from birth, here he lies there in diapers, helpless, even then, then he needs to be told what a child should be, what a person should be, how he should behave.

Probably, you can’t compare the life of a child with anything, and... This is not only relevant, probably, here here, but also in Europe, too, probably everywhere in the world. That is why they are probably interested in this whole story so far.
Diana was 6 years old younger than brother. Late child, which parents asked the sky for. So that God would give him a daughter, Kaloev built a temple with his own money.
- And this sidewalk leads to the temple.
Driving an SUV, he smiles at his memories. It seems that at this moment Vitaly Konstantinovich is speaking not to us, but to himself.
- I swam too. When I left, I didn’t go to this gorge, but to another gorge. I took my son there every August, I forced him to swim 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.
- How old have you been teaching him how to ride horses?
- Well, he was sitting on a horse too, yes, well, he was little. How old was he? 7 years, 8 years...
The successful entrepreneur believed that business will wait if the family wants to go on vacation to the mountains.
- When I was on vacation, we almost every year...
- With your wife?
- We went. With my wife and children too, yes, all the time.
In July 2002, Vitaly Konstantinovich invited his family to Spain. There he completed a large project and before returning he wanted to give the children a gift. We flew for the first time. We were happy. Joy turned to 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 came across these tickets.
Kaloev’s mathematical mindset refuses to accept the further logic of events. By chance, by some miracle, the tickets purchased three hours before departure ended up on a flight with only children. By chance, absolutely by chance. Who knows? A man walked along the road, something will happen to him. We came across these tickets. That's all.
The fatal coincidences continued until the departure. The children were brought to the wrong airport. Their plane departed, but a new flight was allocated. When the plane rolled out onto the runway, it turned out that food had not been loaded on board. I had to return to the airport and spend another 15 minutes.
Before the Kaloevs registered, Diana got lost at the airport. When she was found, registration was already closed, but they were still put on the plane.

18:48 - Flight 2937 takes off from Moscow.
21:06 - after an intermediate landing in Bergamo, the cargo Boeing takes off. When both planes were over German territory, the movement of the planes in the sky was controlled by dispatchers from the private Swiss company Skyguide. - What they say is that the sky there is very saturated, that planes constantly fly there - this is all a lie too. It's all a lie. It was at that time that there were only 3 planes in the sky. 3 planes. These are the 2 planes that collided: Tu-154 and Boeing, one plane was landing in Germany. There is one small town there. So he went there to land, he landed the plane. It was as if the dispatchers couldn’t land him there, or the pilot himself couldn’t 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 the fact that he was alone, does not mean that he is not guilty. The fact that his partner went to rest or something doesn’t matter. Absolutely none.
It doesn’t matter to him whether it was a mistake by 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 planes late.
- I don’t know the work of these dispatchers: how is their work organized or what, or what? But it doesn’t take much intelligence to separate 3 planes. Yes, and from his commands you can see what commands he gave, you can see from them that he was there on purpose or how deliberately he did all this.

Altitude 11 thousand meters, less than a minute before collision. At these moments, Vitaly Kaloev is in a supermarket paying for two chocolate bars for his daughter. Dispatcher Peter Nielsen gives the command to the TU-154 crew to descend. The automatic system for warning of dangerous approaches, on the contrary, requires you to gain altitude. Both planes went down. Kaloev gets into the car and drives off towards Barcelona airport.

21 hours 35 minutes and 32 seconds.
The Boeing's tail stabilizer cuts the fuselage of a passenger airliner in half, and the Russian plane breaks into four parts right in the air.
- I was there, I arrived even two hours before arrival. The schedule is all normal. Then it started: delay, delay. Then the flight disappeared from the board altogether.
Vitaly Kaloev drove away the vague chill of anxiety. Maybe the scoreboard is broken. Maybe a forced landing. You need to calm down and just wait.
“They didn’t know themselves, the airport itself didn’t know.” Until they check the information, no one will say. All this was clarified.
My hands don’t obey me and I can’t light a cigarette for a long time. Another two hours of waiting.
It seems to show that the plane will arrive on time, then there is some kind of delay, then in general... Of course, there was some kind of internal anxiety, but what could we do without it? How's that? A person cannot find a place for himself, how is it, what is there? Then they came out, and after the disaster, probably about two hours later, they said what had happened. He heard everything as if in a fog.
- We were invited, we came out, I don’t remember who came out. Well, some representative came out, the representative came out, and was called into a separate room. And then they said there.
He decides what to do instantly. We need to fly urgently! To Zurich, and then - no matter how, to the place where the plane crashed.
- What should I have done?

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

The German town of Uberlingen, randomly taken shots. A man in a light shirt, who has turned gray during the night, resolutely walks beyond the cordon.
- Well, you see, let's just say they sent me on the wrong trail. I pulled away. They said, okay, if you insist, look somewhere in some square. We found some spare part from the plane. And they already took pictures from above from an airplane. Almost everyone knew there, criminologists, they worked there. They took photographs, noted what was what, how. And then they took the bodies. Well, I saw these bodies. I drove straight between them.
Through 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. I probably didn't guess right. I don’t know, nothing told me that my son was lying here. They were not covered yet, there was nothing there at all. This operation, this rescue operation, was just unfolding when I was already there.
Fragments of bodies were scattered over tens of kilometers. Fruit and apple orchards become mass grave 71 people.
- This is a huge territory. They were scattered about ten kilometers. And this entire territory, as well as parts of the plane, the territory had to be cordoned off. Then this entire area had to be combed, just like that. All rescuers and police officers have been gathered from almost the entire state of Baden-Württemberg for now - this is the time needed.
On the second day of the search, the police showed Kaloyev 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 my daughter’s beads. Daughter's beads. Here is the place where she fell, there I put my hands and felt something like that... I picked it up - a bead. I started looking further - second, third, fourth.
His little Princess Diana seemed to be asleep, except for a large 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 a lot of people.
- I don’t know how much, but it was a lot. I can not say exactly. Several thousand people. After the funeral, everything in the house remained as it was. On the children's beds there are photographs of children left forever as small children and a large portrait of his wife Svetlana.
- Why... They go there... And they look at photographs, and their bed is there, and they spend the night. We use this room, everything is 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'm walking. Filming in a cemetery or somewhere is not the same. And in general, 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 Uberlingen erected a monument to all those who died in the disaster. Beads torn from the impact, spread over tens of meters.
- It’s not me, it’s already there... Here. I think they couldn’t have come up with a better idea, they are children after all. Torn beads... When they found out that I had found my daughter’s torn beads... Everyone knew there... When everything began to be arranged and decorated, they decided to make this monument to all children in the form of a life cut short at the site of the tragedy.

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

It's only in TV series that men don't cry. They cry and remain men.
- They cry, of course they cry. Not for someone to see you, to be desired, right? And giving up is also weakness. This is also a weakness. No matter what kind of person you are, no matter what grief may happen 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 feel sorry for me. I demanded all this from them, and I strictly demanded all this from them. He demanded harshly and found out why they still behave this way. And he posed the questions so that they answered specifically, and did not go somewhere, something. They started to carry something, I stopped them, said: “I don’t need this. This is necessary. Tell me specifically in a few words - yes or no.”
For almost two years, Vitaly Kaloev has been knocking on the thresholds of Swiss authorities, but in response there is silence.
“It wouldn’t make me feel better if they apologized.” Each person must have a certain behavior, how he should behave. If they don’t consider me a person, then I need to force them to take this into account.
At first, he tried to force them to be taken into account solely by the law.
I forced them to admit their mistake, I forced them. Everyone who was present there, and there weren’t many of us, 3 or 4 people, all saw this and agreed that they were to blame.
Instead of sincere repentance, the Swiss offered Vitaly Kaloev substantial compensation - 60 thousand Swiss francs for his wife, 50 thousand for his son, another 50 for 4-year-old Diana.
- They offered compensation, in return we had to give a receipt that we renounce all rights to our children. That we forgot them, erased them from memory. I have this letter at home and in the criminal case.
Having received this letter, Vitaly Kaloev destroyed the furniture in his own house.
- I was raised in such a way that not everything is measured by money. Not everything is measured by money. Here. It is clear that everything has been transferred to commodity-money relations. They count everything, there, in francs, cents or something else, there, euros. But for me it didn’t matter at all what kind of compensation they provided, 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 this, if they didn’t understand... Well, what to do then?
The air traffic controller's crime also went unpunished. He continued to work in the same place.
- His conscience did not torment him. Nothing bothered him. I slept peacefully, rejoiced, and rested. I did what I wanted. All these details, all these details, I didn’t come up with this, it was all for me during the investigation, during conversations with prosecutors...
In the two years after the death of his family, Vitaly Kaloev has not come to terms with the loss and injustice. He himself passed the sentence, he himself decided to carry it out. - All I wanted was to be given an address, that’s all. And what I said, that I need photographs, I want to publish them in the newspaper, or something... I said that... I didn’t say a word about the address at all. If I had said a word about the address, no one would have helped me then. Nobody would tell me anything. I just understood that if they gave me photographs, one hundred percent the address would be there.
Photos with the address of the air traffic controller responsible for his wife's death were obtained by private detectives. All that remained was to get to Zurich. Vitaly Kaloev bought a one-way ticket.
- I didn’t tell him anything in German. I just looked at him and realized that a conversation with him would not work. He looked so arrogant, so smug, so arrogant, so... And he, you know, looked like, why are you knocking, why are you bothering. I understand, of course I understand. I understood, I understood immediately.
Kaloev handed Peter Nielsen photographs of his son, daughter and wife. The air traffic controller waved it off, and the pictures 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.
Vitaly Kaloev will tell you how he found, sentenced and executed the culprit of the terrible plane crash. What did air traffic controller Peter Nielsen manage to tell him before he died? Why didn't Kaloev run away after the murder? And why didn’t you stand in front of the judge when the verdict was announced? 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 everyone with the same date of death - July 1, 2002.
In November 2007, Vitaly Kaloev appeared at the cemetery in front of television cameras for the first and only time. With a bouquet of daisies, chrysanthemums and your own misfortune. At the Ossetian cemetery there are dozens of journalists and, it seems, almost the entire Vladikavkaz. In the dead silence, only the muffled sobs of a hunched over man and the crackling of cameras can be heard. Since then, Vitaly Konstantinovich has been visiting his family at the cemetery only alone.
- If you started filming me there, I would simply think that I was somehow promoting myself or wanted to stick something out there, or something like that...
He has not parted with his loved ones since their death. Always and everywhere with him are photographs of his dead family.
- That's how long it's been - 15 years. You see, even now they have worn off, probably because I took them out often. And in prison they were with me too - these are the photographs. I was also young then.
My breath catches, there is a lump in my throat... At such moments, any, even the most Right words- it's just an empty phrase.
- All my tears have flowed out already. Well, let's finish it already, that's enough.
In memory of the dead, he declared war on the living.

2002, Geneva. Vitaly Kaloev demands to name those responsible for what happened.

It would not have become easier for me, it would not have become absolutely easier. But that attitude, their attitude towards everything that was happening - it went beyond the bounds. How they lied, how they got out, how they generally refused to meet with lawyers or anyone else, with relatives.
There were no culprits, he did not receive 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 not paid enough there, where he was transferred.
Having not achieved justice according to the law, Vitaly Kaloev remembered the ancient custom - blood for blood.
- It was difficult to find this house there, but I found it quite quickly. And there were two apartments there, 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: look, he lives there. He opened it himself, as if he was waiting, he opened it instantly. I hadn't even finished 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 opportunity to defend himself.
- But he didn’t, right?
- Why? Defended himself. How did you not defend yourself? Defended himself.
On the body Swiss air traffic controller Forensic experts count 12 stab wounds to Peter Nielsen.
- I explain everything to you very clearly. He had the opportunity to defend himself.
When it was all over, he didn't cover his tracks. He simply tossed the main piece of evidence against himself—a Swiss penknife—to the side. I walked to the hotel and began to wait. The police came only 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 say about me then, for example? God forbid, what would the children there think of me? Did their father get scared and run away? They might have thought so, probably. They say that there is some kind of life there. Either there is something, or somehow there is. So I thought about this, what would my children say if I ran away. They are worth more, my children, than running away from someone.

It's really unique shots taken in a Swiss prison. Psychologists worked with Vitaly Kaloev, but the advice of European experts seemed strange to a person from the Caucasus.
“They told me here, the bastards, that now I should feel better, because there are many like me.”
During the investigation, Vitaly Kaloev was silent; the evidence spoke for him.
- I spent 4 years in prison without two months. They gave me 8 years, eight years. I was not afraid of this trial. I didn’t even stand up for them when they suggested to me that the trial was over and I needed to stand up. I told them: “Who should get up? I don't consider them to be judges. There are no judges over me." They were confused. They consulted and said: “Okay, let him sit, no need to get up.” I didn’t understand: sit for 8 years or just sit down.
If it had been proven that this strange Russian 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, no matter what it is, no matter what cells there are, with a soft sofa or something. In any case, a prison is a prison. But what helped me? My children helped me withstand all this. Thinking about them helped me. Good mood!
This is the only recording made in prison. The older brother, Yuri Kaloev, came to Vitaly.
- How do you communicate with the staff here? Still, they speak German. -I taught them Russian already.
Behind bars, Vitaly 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. A drug addict, all yellow. He constantly extended his hands. I said: “Get your hands off”! I didn't shake anyone's hand at all. Because there are these... How do I know, he’s a pedophile, or he’s in prison for something else. You shake hands and then cut them off, or what? There was also one crest 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 downhill, you know?
- Kostya’s classmates sent me letters for his birthday. “I would like to support you as a human being. It's not easy losing children. This is the most precious thing for us.”
Words have weight. Words that give hope are worth their weight in gold. During his four years in prison, he accumulated twenty kilograms of letters that he received from outside.
- Two years later these letters were given to me. When the regime was changed, the regime was changed, these letters were given to me. These letters were given to me. And when I was released 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 envelopes to meet this weight. And he left his things. Well, they seemed to take pity on me and gave me things.

At Moscow's Domodedovo airport, the Swiss prisoner was greeted with Caucasian hospitality. In the VIP room, 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 in your homeland. In his native republic, his release was awaited with special trepidation. For every Ossetian it is now a reason for pride and a special honor to invite Vitaly Kaloev to his table.
If Gagarin had been an Ossetian and had flown in, then no one would have given him anything except an honorary glass. We have nothing higher than this.
- 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. It seemed incredible at the time, but years later it will suddenly become true. But Vitaly Kaloev will carefully hide his new happiness from everyone.

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

It was long haul 16 years long along the very edge of the abyss. He himself does not fully understand what helped him not fall into the abyss after the tragedy. Perhaps some kind of inner core. And of course - relatives and friends.
- Hello! They said you are the most important owner of the mountain here.
- What’s his name, make a fire, they’re hungry. We’ll now drive through the gorge, about 30 minutes. We’ll come back... Tea... You have very fresh cheese. That's it, come on.
Let's drink to the big God, because everything is in the hands of the Almighty. 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 for the reason for which we have gathered at this table.
Vitaly Kaloev didn’t exactly 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, so that a birth certificate would be issued for him, I went and they gave me these stamps, and that’s it. - All our relatives gather at our wedding. Everyone already knows, he’s already married, that’s it. -This is like a registry office for us. - Since such a wedding went on, I want details of how it happened. -I didn’t get down on my knees.
- Just “will you marry me?”
- Well, how? I said that I want to start a family. Do you want it 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 remains a heavy lead sediment. I probably have what I deserve.
Friends raise their glasses to Vitaly, who, in their opinion, deserves happiness. - - Health to you, this is the most important thing. And we also really want Vitalik to have a little one. God grant that such a day also comes. For you.
- God willing.
He walked along the gorge alone, carrying a terrible past and grave sin on his shoulders. Life moves on. And my personal life even 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 away. - Well, why divide it, the past, one life. I’m telling you, before everything was fine, and after this tragedy happened, a person already lives and thinks differently. As for everything that I did, it was already useless, for what?! The man tried... I will answer in the words of Ostrovsky: so that you would not be ashamed of the life you lived! It is most important. This is the most important thing, yes.

The most complete reconstruction of this terrible plane crash was made by the National Geographic channel as part of the series.

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

The Bashkir Airlines plane was operating a charter flight from Moscow to Barcelona. Most of the passengers on the Tu-154 were children who were heading to Spain on vacation. The Committee of the Republic of Bashkortostan for UNESCO provided them with vouchers as an incentive for high achievements in their studies. The Boeing 757-200PF cargo aircraft operated flight 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 airliner from Bergamo at 21:06.

At the time of the crash, both aircraft were over German territory, but the movement of the aircraft in the sky was controlled by dispatchers 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 planes collided, one of the operators went on a break. Therefore, 34-year-old dispatcher Peter Nielsen had to work simultaneously at two consoles.

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

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

The two aircraft were moving perpendicular to each other at the same flight level FL360. There was less than a minute left before their collision when the dispatcher noticed a dangerous approach. He gave the command to the Russian ship to descend, and the pilots immediately began to carry out his instructions. But at that moment, the automatic proximity warning system (TCAS) activated in the cockpits of both aircraft. The automation commanded the passenger liner to immediately gain altitude, and the cargo liner to descend. However, the Russian pilots continued to follow the dispatcher's instructions.

But the cargo side also descended, following TCAS commands. 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 disaster, but it was too late. At 21:35, flights 2937 and 611 collided almost at right angles at an altitude of 10,634 meters.

Boeing crashed into the fuselage of a passenger Tu-154. The impact caused the plane to break into four parts in the air. The cargo airliner lost control and fell to the ground 7 km from the Russian Tu-154.

Court of father and husband

By July 2002, Russian architect Vitaly Kaloev had already been working in Spain for two years. He completed the project near Barcelona, ​​handed it over to the customer and waited for his family, whom he had not seen for nine months. His wife and children were already in Moscow by that time, but a problem arose with purchasing tickets. And then she was offered a last minute offer - on that same Bashkir Airlines flight.

Having learned about the incident, Vitaly Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and then to Uberlingen, where the disaster occurred.

No one took responsibility for what happened then - no one asked for forgiveness from the inconsolable parents. The trials 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.

• Vitaly Kaloev approaches the grave of his family

A year and a half after the tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev decided to meet with Peter Nielsen. He found out 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 said only one word in Spanish: “Look.” But instead of apologizing, Nielsen hit him on the arm, knocking out the photographs. Vitaly Kaloev, according to him, does not remember what happened next - tears flowed from his eyes, his consciousness turned off. Investigators later counted 12 stab wounds on Nielsen's body.

A Swiss court found Vitaly Kaloyev 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 wide resonance. Discussing what happened, society was divided into two camps: those who understand why a family man, a person who had never broken the law before, could do such a thing, and those who condemn Kaloev’s act.

Ksenia Kaspari is the author of the book “Clash. The frank story of Vitaly Kaloev” - in a conversation with RT, she said that she spent a sufficient amount of 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 site of the tragedy and the bodies of his relatives. Because of this, it was psychologically harder for him than for others.

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

“The relatives of the dead children flew in, laid wreaths, took DNA tests, flew away and received sealed zinc coffins. And Kaloev, although he did not directly participate in the search, on the second day he was shown photographs of the bodies that had already been found, and in one of the first photographs he saw his daughter. She was one of the first to be found, having fallen into a tree and looking virtually undamaged. He identified her,” Kaspari told RT.

“He found himself at the scene of the disaster when search operations had just begun. He, seeing fragments of bodies, various evidence of cut short lives, understood and imagined how 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 the disaster over Lake Constance was preceded by a number of random circumstances.

The best schoolchildren of Ufa flew to Spain for vacation through the capital. But 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 were given a new flight, but when the plane rolled out onto the runway, it turned out that food had not been loaded on board. We had to return to the airport and spend some more time loading containers with food.

At the same time, Kaloyev’s wife and children, who also had tickets for the fatal flight, were late for boarding, but they were checked in anyway.

“It was as if some unknown hand was leading to tragedy. A few seconds were not enough to separate the planes - the minutes that were spent on all these details turned out to be fateful,” Kaspari noted.

Looking for the culprit

Over the course of 15 years, in Germany, where the disaster occurred, and in Switzerland, where Skyguide is based, and in Spain, the destination of the Russian airliner, many trials were held in the case of plane crashes over Lake Constance.

There were many questions both to the dispatch company and to the German side, which did not have the right to entrust a private Swiss company to control the flight. But representatives of Skyguide immediately after the tragedy stated 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, which concluded that Swiss air traffic controllers were to blame for the Tu-154 collision with Boeing. Skyguide was forced to admit guilt, and two years after the tragedy, the director of the control company apologized to the families of the victims.

• Reuters

The final verdict against eight Skyguide employees was made in 2007. Four managers were found guilty of causing death by negligence, the court sentenced three to suspended imprisonment, and one was fined. The court acquitted four more accused.

The dispatch 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 claims against two American companies that were responsible for the TCAS automated aircraft safety system.

Executive Director of the Society of Independent Investigators aviation accidents Valery Postnikov, in a conversation with RT, emphasized that it is wrong to blame one person for plane crashes.

“There are no cases in aviation when it is possible to clearly 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.

RT's interlocutor noted that the entire system is built on the relationship between instrumental and human factors who must not allow disaster to happen. He added that the collision aircraft in the sky is one of the rarest events that happens in aviation.

In an interview with RT, Postnikov said that in the plane crash over Lake Constance, “all the blame cannot be placed on one dispatcher.”

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