Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time. Vitaly Kaloev commented on the birth of twins Vitaly Kaloev tragedy over Lake Constance

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.

After the tragedy and reprisal against the Swiss dispatcher Peter Nielsen, because of which two planes collided in the sky, Kaloev said that he was “at odds with God.” But time passed, and Vitaly found the strength to build a new life.

In 2013, Vitaly started a family for the second time. His chosen one was Irina Dzarasova, who worked as an engineer at OJSC Sevkavkazenergo. She is 22 years younger than her husband.

Two years ago Vitaly retired. As the former head of North Ossetia, Teimuraz Mansurov, told local reporters, “he’s just living the normal life that a man of his age should live. He didn’t bury himself anywhere, didn’t isolate himself from anything. He lives like a real Ossetian, a sage...”

And finally God gave him twins - a boy and a girl. The children were born healthy and feel well, just like their mother Irina.

“MK” got through to Vitaly Kaloev to congratulate him on this joyful event.

“The doctors say that the babies are fine,” Kaloev said. - They were born healthy, everything is normal. My wife also feels well, everything went without complications.”

We haven’t come up with names for the children yet, but we have time to think about what to call them. Life turned out in such a way that children appeared and I again had the meaning of life.”

The terrible tragedy over Lake Constance, which occurred in July 2002, shocked many. Due to a pilot error, a DHL Boeing cargo plane and a Bashkir Airlines passenger airliner, on which Russian children were flying to Spain, collided head-on in the big sky.

Of the 71 victims of the disaster, 52 were children. Among the passengers on the ill-fated flight were the entire family of the architect from North Ossetia Vitali Kaloyev - his wife, 11-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

Kaloev was building houses in Spain, did not see his family for a long time, and finally they decided to get out to him... Vitaly was the only one of the parents of the victims of the tragedy who was allowed to the scene of the disaster, where he rushed the next day. The scattered beads from his daughter’s childhood necklace, which he felt with trembling hands in the grass, then became an element of the memorial at the site of the tragedy...

Having buried his family and erected a huge beautiful monument on their grave, he still waited for justice. However, the Swiss company Skyguide, which piloted planes in the night sky, was in no hurry to apologize. And dispatcher Peter Nielsen was not even fired. For two years, Kaloev, according to his stories, lived in a cemetery. And then he decided to seek justice himself. What happened next is well known and became the plot of two feature films - a Hollywood one with Schwarzenegger in the title role and a Russian one, where.

Twelve stab wounds inflicted by Kaloev on the Swiss dispatcher, who did not want to apologize for what he had done and chased the Russian out of the yard like a dog, resulted in 8 years in prison. But already in 2007, Kaloev was released for good behavior. He returned to his homeland.

The head of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mansurov, appointed him Deputy Minister for the Construction of the Republic. Vitaly threw himself into work. He didn’t want to come to the empty beautiful house that was built for a large family.

Under the leadership of Kaloev, many new buildings were built in Vladikavkaz. A television tower was erected on the mountain, to which a cable car stretches, a music and cultural center with an amphitheater and a school for talented children.

In Switzerland, the trial of Vitaly Kaloev, who is accused of murdering Skyguide air traffic controller Peter Nielsen on February 24, 2004, began yesterday in the Supreme Court of the canton of Zurich. The defendant refused to apologize to the dispatcher's family. The prosecutor asked for 12 years in prison. Kommersant correspondent IGOR SEDYKH provides details from Zurich.

There are a lot of television cameras near the courthouse - television crews are not allowed inside, and they are trying to get information from those leaving. Lawyer Vladimir Sergeev told them that Vitaly Kaloev “conducts himself well, answers correctly,” and the head of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mamsurov, said: “It’s not my place to comment on the progress of the trial, we came to morally support our fellow countryman.” Writing journalists are luckier - they are present at the trial itself.

True, they, like everyone else not participating in the process, had their bags thoroughly searched, their mobile phones and voice recorders were taken away, and after passing through the metal detector gates, the police also patted them down from head to toe. This procedure was repeated after each break in the meeting.

When the haggard and slouched Vitaly Kaloev was brought into the hall, he smiled and raised his hands, welcoming his fellow Ossetians - a delegation led by Mr. Mamsurov and a dozen relatives and close friends, including his older brother Yuri. The defendant was seated right in the hall, with his back to the audience and facing the judges, without being separated from them by anything. He was accompanied by only one security guard in civilian clothes.

The accused Kaloyev is being tried by a panel of professional judges: Werner Hotz, Daniel Bussman and Willi Meier. As lawyer Sergeev noted, the defendant had the right to choose a jury trial. However, according to the defense, in this case the outcome would largely depend on the emotionality of the jury, while professional judges would be guided only by the law.

Chairman Werner Hotz read out a list of prohibitions - do not make noise, do not walk, do not make audio recordings, do not take photographs, and much more - and opened the meeting.

The interrogation of the defendant began with a study of his biography: when he was born, who his parents were. And suddenly an unexpected question from the judge followed:

— Tell me, how do Ossetians differ from Bashkirs? (He meant that one of the planes that collided over Lake Constance belonged to Bashkir Airlines.— Kommersant)

“Each has its own characteristics,” answered the defendant.
— What are the characteristics of Ossetians?
- They are the same as everyone else.

The court then found that the once successful civil engineer Vitaly Kaloev, who had his own business, had not worked since the death of his wife and two children in a plane crash.

—What did you live on?
— The family helped.

— Did you receive benefits from the Bashkir government, like other relatives of the victims?

- I didn’t receive anything.
Vitaly Kaloev told how he arrived at the scene of the disaster.
-Have you seen the bodies of your children? - asked the judge.
Defendant Kaloev shook his head negatively:

- I can’t say for sure now. My son fell there, I felt that he was lying there.

— Then you took the bodies of your loved ones home?
“That’s all I could do for them.” I lived in a cemetery for almost two years...
- Why didn’t you return to work?
— For whom should I work?
- For myself, to start a new life.
“It’s easy to talk...” Vitaly Kaloev answered after some silence.

At the day's hearing, the court focused on three episodes: mourning events in July 2003 in Zurich, dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy over Lake Constance, Vitaly Kaloyev's appeal to the Moscow detective bureau "Maigret-2" and his violent reaction to the letter from Skyguide lawyers in November 2003 year, in which Vitaly Kaloev was notified that the company had nothing to apologize to him for.

On July 3, 2003, after a funeral ceremony in Iberlingen, several people, including Vitaly Kaloev, responded to the invitation of Skyguide, which held a similar event in Zurich. According to the defendant, he went there for explanations and apologies.

— But Rossier (Alain Rossier, CEO of Skyguide.— Kommersant) did not apologize. If he had apologized, then nothing would have happened,” said the accused Kaloev.

After this, the judge read out the testimony of Alain Rossier, who claimed that Vitaly Kaloev had threatened him.

“That’s not true,” answered the defendant. “I went up to him, took out photographs of the children’s graves and asked: “If your children were lying like this, how would you talk?” I didn't threaten him.

The defendant's next phrase puzzled the judges:

“I spoke with Rossier three times and realized that he was the main culprit in the death of my children.

— But you named the main culprit as dispatcher Nielsen?

“We need to distinguish,” explained Vitaly Kaloev. “There is the main responsible and the directly responsible.” Rossier was to blame for the organization of work in his enterprise, and Nielsen was directly to blame on the spot.

At the same time, Vitaly Kaloev expressed indignation that in Switzerland the investigation of the disaster is at a standstill.

- So you think that those guilty of murder by negligence should be sent to prison? - the judge asked him.

“I said the most important thing for me is that they apologize.” I don't want them to go to jail. You won't get my children back anyway.

It was after a conversation with Alain Rossier that Vitaly Kaloev, in his own words, bought a knife.

- This? - Judge Hotz showed him the folding knife with which Peter Nilsen was allegedly killed.

“Looks like it,” answered the defendant.

After this, the judge moved on to another episode, recalling that on September 12, 2003, defendant Kaloev went to the Maigret-2 detective bureau in Moscow, where they allegedly obtained a photograph of dispatcher Nielsen. To this, Vitaly Kaloev said that in fact they were talking about several photographs:

“I said: why are there no photographs of all the perpetrators of the tragedy?

Then the judge showed him several contracts that Vitaly Kaloev signed with the Maigret bureau to search specifically for photographs of dispatcher Nielsen and his address.

“They told me, I signed,” answered the defendant.

True, under one of the documents, according to him, the signature was not made by his hand. This is a letter of guarantee prepared at Maigret-2 at the request of Swiss colleagues on January 23, 2004, a month before the murder of Peter Nielsen. It contained a commitment not to cause physical harm to any person whose photographs were provided. However, the defendant said, he “never had any intention of causing physical harm to anyone at Skyguide.” However, he has so far left unexplained the fact that in his international travels he twice used a passport in the name of Vasily Glukhov.

After this, the court considered the episode related to Skyguide’s written refusal to apologize. Vitaly Kaloev admitted that his reaction to this was very violent and he even broke furniture:

— Yes, I was indignant, because Skyguide demanded that I abandon my children and my wife. This is looting - trading in the bodies of dead children.

However, the episode was not chosen by chance, since it was after this letter that Vitaly Kaloev got ready for his last trip to Zurich. The defendant said that he had been negotiating for a long time about a meeting with Alain Rossier, but he avoided it. In the end the final refusal came.

Then from Switzerland, he said, he was going to go to Spain to ask for an extension of his residence permit. The arrest got in the way.

At the evening meeting, the discussion was directly about the murder of dispatcher Peter Nielsen. Vitaly Kaloev outlined his version of events. When he found the apartment of the victim Nielsen, it was still light.

“He saw me and I gestured that I wanted to come in.” He came out and I told him that I was from Russia and wanted to talk to him. But he slammed the door...

“Did you notice that when he slammed the door, he pinched his daughter’s head?” - the judge interrupted him.

“No, I didn’t see that, I didn’t see any children,” said the defendant and continued his story.

When the dispatcher finally came out, Vitaly Kaloev took the envelope with photographs of the children in his left hand, and with his right hand showed that, here they are, look at the photographs. But Peter Nielsen hit him on the arm and motioned for him to get out. He then struck a second time and this time the photographs fell to the ground.

“It got dark in my eyes,” Vitaly Kaloev continued with a trembling voice. “I remember that it even seemed to me that my children were turned over in their coffins, thrown out of them, that is, from the coffins.” I don’t remember, I don’t know what I did then.

According to the defendant, he came to his senses only when he heard a siren roar on the street. Here the judges and prosecutor Ulrich Weber began to seek a confession of murder from the defendant. The prosecutor referred to his confession during the investigation.

“I only admitted then that all the evidence confirmed my guilt,” said Vitaly Kaloev. “According to this evidence, it turns out that I killed him.” But actually, what was in my head, I can’t say.

Then the court had another question: if Vitaly Kaloev demands an apology from Skyguide, then does he himself want to apologize to the Nielsen family for the crime committed. Even Vitaly Kaloyev’s lawyer, Markus Hug, believed that an apology should still be made:

“In my opinion, now is a favorable opportunity to apologize to Nielsen’s loved ones.

But Vitaly Kaloev was silent. After several attempts on the part of the judges to move him to repentance, he said:

- I will find such an opportunity. I feel sorry for these children (the children of the deceased.— Kommersant), I myself was an orphan.

After the end of the interrogation of Vitaly Kaloyev, prosecutor Ulrich Weber and lawyer Markus Hug spoke. The prosecutor demanded that Vitaly Kaloyev be sentenced to 12 years in prison. The lawyer argued that his client did not deserve such punishment, since he himself was a victim. Sentencing is expected today.

IGOR Ъ-SEDIKH, Zurich

I just demanded that the people from the airline apologize to the relatives of the victims, as is humanly possible, but they constantly got out of it...

“West is West, East is East, and they will never come together,” wrote Kipling. But in the tiny Swiss town of Kloten, not far from Zurich, not just two civilizations came together, but two completely different mentalities that spoke completely different languages.

Russian Vitaly Kaloyev did not need any compensation or court decisions, he just wanted to finally hear a human apology from those who - albeit unwittingly - destroyed his family. Swiss Peter Nielsen thought only about the legal consequences. “An apology implies an admission of guilt, and this can lead to undesirable court decisions,” the lawyers told them.

Therefore, Nielsen did not let Kaloyev onto the threshold of his house.

I rang the doorbell again and told him: “Ich bin Russland,” said Kaloev. - 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 - the pictures flew to the ground... My eyes went dark. It even seemed to me that my children were turned over in their coffins, thrown out of them, that is, from the coffins...

Further events were reconstructed by the investigation. Not remembering himself with anger, Kaloev grabbed a Wenger folding Swiss knife from his pocket - the most ordinary folding knife that can be bought in any store. The blade is only 10 centimeters long.

With this knife, he rushed at Peter and began to chop up his enemy, striking anywhere: in the chest, in the face, in the mouth twisted with a grin...

Nielsen tried to resist, but in vain - in just a minute, Kaloev inflicted 17 stab wounds on the victim. Nine blows hit the chest - the knife pierced the lungs and heart. Several blows landed in the face - the mouth was cut on both sides almost from ear to ear, two teeth were knocked out. Kaloev also cut his victim’s femoral artery and veins...

Hearing Nielsen's screams, his wife Mette jumped out onto the terrace and saw a terrible picture: her husband was lying in a pool of blood, and a scary black-bearded man was standing over him with a knife in his hand. She rushed to her neighbors screaming for help.

But Vitaly Kaloev, not paying any attention to the screams, simply turned around and slowly walked away on foot - as if on autopilot, he walked to the Welcome Inn hotel, where he stayed when he arrived in Kloten. Somewhere halfway there, he remembered the bloody knife that he was still clutching in his hand. Kaloyev threw the knife into some ditch - the police then dug through half the city, trying to find the murder weapon. Unnoticed by anyone - at six o'clock the streets of Swiss towns literally die out - he reached the hotel. In the room, he took off his bloody clothes and shoes and put them, along with blood-splattered photographs, in a bag, which he hid in the trash near the exit of the hotel's underground garage. He returned to the room and began to wait. What? He himself didn’t know what exactly. There was no longer any point in living anymore.

Detention of Vitaly Kaloev. Photo: © REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

Vitaly Kaloev just sat in the room and waited for something, looking at one point on the wall.

Police special forces broke into his room only a day later.

Regular builder

Before this monstrous tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev was an ordinary builder from North Ossetia. He was born on January 15, 1956 in the city of Vladikavkaz, formerly Ordzhonikidze. His father Konstantin Kambolatovich taught the Ossetian language at school, his mother Olga Gazbeevna worked as a teacher in a kindergarten. Vitaly also had two brothers and three sisters, among them he is the youngest. At the same time, the parents were most proud of Vitaly, who adored reading since childhood. Already at the age of five, he read fluently and learned poetry by heart, and at school he got straight A's.

After graduating from school, Kaloev entered a construction technical school, then served in the army, entered the Institute of Architecture and Construction, then got a job in the construction department of Ossetia.

In 1991, he married Svetlana Gagievskaya, who worked as the director of the local branch of Sberbank.

Soon the couple had two children - son Kostya in 1991 and daughter Diana in 1998.

In a word, this was a friendly and very wealthy family by Ossetian standards: Vitaly headed the construction department of Vladikavkaz, Svetlana worked as deputy director for finance of the Daryal brewing plant, the son studied at the most prestigious school. Then the financial crisis of 1998 hit the country, and many local businesses declared bankruptcy. And then Vitaly Kaloev decided to find work abroad. In 1999, his construction department signed a contract with a Spanish company and he left to build residential buildings in Barcelona.

01.07.2002

The family of Vitaly Kaloyev got on this flight by accident. In Moscow, Svetlana and her children had a transfer, but due to weather conditions they missed their flight and got stuck in Sheremetyevo. And after three hours of waiting, the dispatcher offered the Kaloevs three free seats on board a Tu-154 charter flight of Bashkir Airlines, on which a group of teenagers were flying to Spain - the best students of a UNESCO special school, winners of various Olympiads, who received free vacation packages on the Mediterranean coast . There were several empty seats on board.

On the night of July 1, 2002, a Tu-154 collided in the air with a Boeing 747 aircraft of the international logistics company DHL, flying from Bahrain to Brussels - there were no passengers on board, only two experienced pilots. The disaster occurred near the small town of Iberlingen, near Lake Constance.

As it later turned out, the crash occurred due to the fault of dispatchers of the private Swiss company Skyguide, which managed air traffic in this area of ​​​​Germany. As experts have found out, two factors led to the disaster. On the eve of the tragedy, equipment was changed in the control room, but the new systems worked with malfunctions and errors, which the dispatchers were honestly warned about by posters hanging around the office. True, the dispatchers themselves did not pay any attention to these warnings.

Moreover, at the time of the tragedy, in violation of all norms and rules, only two people were working in the control room, one of whom was also out for a lunch break. As a result, 34-year-old Peter Nielsen had to independently cope with two remote controls and give commands to the pilots.

Because some of the equipment in the room was turned off, the controller noticed too late that the planes were dangerously close to each other. A minute before the collision, he tried to correct the situation and transmitted instructions to the Tu-154 to descend, although the automatic system for warning of dangerous approaches, on the contrary, recommended the pilots to gain altitude. The Boeing 747 also began to descend, but Nielsen, not having heard his message, made a second fatal mistake, mixing up the sides: he told the Tu-154 pilots that the Boeing was on the right, while in reality the plane was on the left.

Seconds before the collision, the plane pilots saw each other and made a desperate attempt to prevent a disaster - but it was too late.

Pearl necklace

Vitaly Kaloev, as soon as he heard about the disaster in the skies over Germany, dropped everything and went to Lake Constance. He was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the disaster. The police did not want to let him into the scene of the tragedy, but they met him halfway when they learned that he would be looking for the dead with them.

Already on the first day of work, he found a torn pearl necklace of his four-year-old daughter Diana in the forest - a few years later this image was embodied in the monument “Torn String of Pearls”, installed at the site of the disaster.

Next, Vitaly found the body of Diana’s four-year-old daughter, who, to the surprise of all rescuers, was practically unharmed. But the search engines managed to find the disfigured bodies of his wife Svetlana and ten-year-old son Konstantin only after a week and a half of work.

“I spent ten days searching for the remains of my dear children and wife,” he wrote on a website dedicated to the memory of the victims of the disaster. “My life stopped on this tragic date of 07/01/2002. I can only live with memories. The only consolation is visiting them every day graves in the cemetery in Vladikavkaz, where they are buried."

The wreckage of a crashed Tupolev at the crash site. Photo: © AP Photo/Diether Endlicher

During rescue operations from German rescuers, Kaloyev heard for the first time the name of dispatcher Peter Nielsen, because for a long time the management of Skyguide generally denied any involvement in the disaster over Lake Constance. After this, Vitaly approached the airline’s management several times and asked the same question regarding the extent of the dispatcher’s guilt in the accident over the lake. But no one wanted to talk to him.

How to make money from tragedy

The investigation into the causes of the tragedy, which was carried out by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, took 22 months. At the same time, the management of the Skyguide company dodged as best they could. The Swiss were also helped in this by the European press, which from the very first minutes of the tragedy reflexively blamed the Russian side for what had happened: they say, everything happened because the Bashkir Airlines pilots allegedly did not know English.

Then Skyguide's lawyers set a condition for the relatives of the victims: in exchange for monetary compensation, they had to renounce all claims against other participants in the disaster in favor of the company. The calculation of compensation was drawn up with European meticulousness: parents for a deceased child - 50 thousand francs, a spouse for a spouse - 60 thousand, a child for a parent - 40 thousand. According to experts, such a requirement allowed Skyguide to file claims against DHL and even... make money from this business!

It was then that Russian people looked with surprise at cynical Europe and wondered: does this really happen in Europe?!..

Relatives of those killed in the plane crash hold placards in front of the district court in Buelach near Zurich, May 21, 2007. Photo: © AP Photo/KEYSTONE/Alessandro Della Bella

Only pressed to the wall by irrefutable facts, the Swiss through gritted teeth admitted the guilt of the management of Skyguide, which did not provide the control center with enough personnel during the night shift. At the same time, no one officially named Peter Nielsen as the culprit of the collision, and Skyguide only temporarily suspended him from work and sent him to psychological rehabilitation, without even imposing penalties.

But Vitaly Kaloev all this time lived with an obsession to achieve justice, even illusory. He wanted people who treated the relatives of the victims like garbage to finally admit their guilt and ask for forgiveness.

If he apologized...

A year after the tragedy, Kaloev came to a funeral ceremony in Iberlingen and demanded a conversation with the director of Skyguide, Alan Rossier.

I went up to him, took out photographs of the children’s graves and asked: “If your children were lying like this, how would you talk?” - Kaloev recalled. - But he didn’t even deign me to answer. Then I came to their residence and spoke harshly. I said: “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 navigational safety device.” “But if your controller had not intervened, the planes might have flown apart?” He nodded: "Yes." I still forced him to admit his mistake. I achieved what all lawyers and jurists could not do!.. 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.

He did not even respond to the letter offering monetary compensation.

Alain Rossier. Photo: © AP Photos/ Keystone, Walter Bieri

I didn't even look at this letter. Money in exchange for memory?! This was after that meeting with the director. I realized: they don’t consider us people!

Instead, he began to seek a meeting with the dispatcher Nielsen, but in response, in November 2003, he received a letter from Skyguide's lawyers, in which Vitaly Kaloev was notified that the company and the dispatcher had nothing to apologize to him for.

Since Vitaly Kaloev did not know where to find the dispatcher, he turned to the Moscow detective agency "Maigre-2" with a request to compile a dossier on everyone working at Skyguide. The dossier was compiled by the Swiss colleagues of the capital's detectives themselves for a generous fee. True, at the request of the Swiss, Kaloev signed a guarantee not to cause physical harm to any of the persons whose photographs were provided. However, as Kaloev stated, at that moment he had no intention of causing physical suffering to anyone. He just wanted an apology.

Then Kaloev, through acquaintances in Vladikavkaz, bought a foreign passport in the name of a certain Vasily Glukhov. As he later stated in court, he simply did not want to be arrested immediately upon arrival in Zurich - on the orders of his lawyers.

On February 24, 2004, Kaloev appeared on the threshold of Nielsen’s house and again took out photographs of his dead children: “Do these children really not deserve to at least apologize to them?!..”

It is interesting that Peter Nielsen, who was warned by Skyguide’s lawyers about the persistent interest that the Russians were showing in his person, bought himself a Swiss Sphix SDP pistol for self-defense, with which he constantly went to work. But Vitaly took Nielsen by surprise - when he was at home, the gun was in the gun safe so that small children would not accidentally find the weapon.

Out of frustration, the dispatcher hit the hand with the photographs, the cards with the portraits of Diana and Kostya fell into the dirt, and Vitaly, in a state of passion, attacked Nielsen with a folding knife.

If he had simply apologized, none of this would have happened, he repeated over and over again in court.

Sentence

The 36-year-old dispatcher became the latest, 72nd, victim of an accident over Lake Constance. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Dispatcher Peter Nielsen. Screenshot © L!FE

Within an hour after the murder, the police sent out a tip on a man of oriental appearance, dressed in black trousers and a black coat. All roads were blocked - the police were sure that the killer would try to escape from the country.

Kaloyev was caught by accident - when a hotel employee, after watching TV, decided to call the police so that, just in case, they would check their bearded guest, who had not left his room for a day.

Already at the first interrogation, Kaloev signed a confession to the murder - he saw no point in hiding. At the same time, Vitaly Kaloev expressed indignation that in Switzerland the investigation of the disaster is at a standstill.

So you think those guilty of negligent homicide should be sent to prison? - the investigator asked him.

The most important thing for me is that they apologize. I don't want them to go to jail. You won't get my children back anyway.

Why do you need these apologies? - the Germans were perplexed.

President of the Republic of North Ossetia Taimuraz Mamsurov speaks to the media outside the court in Zurich, Switzerland, Tuesday, October 25, 2005. Photo: © AP Photo/Keystone, Walter Bieri

After the trial, journalists asked Kaloev: if he so demands an apology from Skyguide, then doesn’t he want to apologize to the Nielsen family for the crime he committed?

“I will find such an opportunity,” Kaloev answered after a moment of silence. - I feel sorry for his children.

National hero of Ossetia

Two years later - in November 2007 - by a court decision, Kaloev was released for exemplary behavior.

Almost the entire prison knew me,” Vitaly Kaloev later recalled. - When I went for a walk, many people came up to me to say hello. But until I found out how and what, I didn’t shake hands with anyone: pedophiles and sexual rapists were sitting there too. I was afraid that I would shake hands with such a person, and then, I think, I wouldn’t wash my hand.

In North Ossetia, the release of Vitaly Kaloev was perceived as a national holiday. At the Vladikavkaz airport, the national hero was met by the head of the republic, Taimuraz Mamsurov, and fans of the Alania club.

Russian Vitaly Kaloev arrived in Moscow (Domodedovo Airport). Swiss authorities have released from prison Russian Vitaly Kaloyev, who was previously convicted of murdering a dispatcher for the Swiss company Skyguide. Photo: © RIA Novosti / Anton Denisov

In 2008, Kaloev received a high post in the government of the republic: he was approved for the post of Deputy Minister of Construction Policy and Architecture of the republic. It is Kaloev who has been overseeing all significant projects for the last 10 years, for example, the construction of a television tower on Lysaya Gora - with a rotating observation deck and a restaurant, just like in Moscow. Another project is the Caucasian Musical and Cultural Center named after Valery Gergiev, designed in the workshop of Norman Foster.

In this post, he became a real people's intercessor - a reception on personal issues with Deputy Minister Kaloyev was scheduled for months in advance. They come to him with any questions: they need money for medicine, building materials for repairs, to arrange a high-tech operation for someone. They know that the people's hero of the republic will not refuse.

Kaloev’s phone is also ringing off the hook with calls from the colonies: prisoners all over the country believe that only an official who has served time will meet them halfway. Moreover, most often prisoners ask to resolve the issue of prison parcels or to open a prison kiosk where they can buy tea and cigarettes.

The story of Vitaly Kaloev has already become the basis for a feature film: in 2017, the Hollywood drama “Consequences” was released, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger starred. True, Vitaly Kaloev himself criticized the film and said that he was dissatisfied with Schwarzenegger’s performance: they say that the former governor of California is only trying to arouse pity for himself, instead of seeking justice.

Still from the film "Consequences". Photo: © kinopoisk.ru

It’s as if he’s asking for the entire film to be pitied and petted. I will say that this was not on my part, I do not want to be pitied. I wanted and insisted that the authorities understand what had happened, so that the perpetrators would receive the deserved punishment. That's all.

This text is one of them. 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 meet with a Lenta.ru correspondent and 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 with an employee of the Skyguide air traffic control company, Peter Nielsen, 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. Both objects have passed all the formalities - all that remains is to wait for financing. The tower is apparently more needed: the current television tower in North Ossetia is about half a century old, and is in good condition. But the center is more unusual: several halls, an amphitheater, a school for gifted children. “The project is very technically complex - linear calculations, nonlinear calculations, each individual element and the entire structure as a whole,” the retired deputy minister assesses the creativity of Foster’s colleagues.

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 Vitaly, 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. The Russian side should have acted in the same way. Instead, it’s an ugly anti-legal show,” retired police major general Vladimir Ovchinsky, now an adviser to the Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, assessed the solemn meeting of the Swiss prisoner in Domodedovo. Among opponents of the glorification of Kaloyev, a special protest was caused by the statement of the Nashi movement: “Kaloyev turned out to be... A man with a capital letter. And he found himself punished and humiliated for the whole country... If there were at least a little more people like Kaloev, the attitude towards Russia would be completely different. Worldwide".

“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.

Photo: Valery Melnikov / Kommersant

“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 to do it 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 , he knocked out 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.”