Vitaly Kaloev: life first. Vitaly Kaloev Lake Constance plane crash Kaloev
Vitaly Kaloev is a man who instantly lost his entire family in a plane crash. He took revenge for the deaths of people close to him and returned to life again, creating a new family.
Biography of Vitaly Kaloev
Vitaly owes his birth to his parents, teachers. He was born as the last, sixth child. Before him, the family consisted of two brothers and three sisters. His hometown is Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz).
Of the six children, Vitaly was the smartest; from the age of five he learned to read and re-read many books. He graduated from school with honors, entered a construction college, and served in the army. After serving in the army, he continued his studies at the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute at the Faculty of Architecture and Construction. He combined his studies with work at a construction site, as a foreman. Received a diploma in architecture. He helped build the Sputnik military camp near Vladikavkaz, for Soviet military personnel whose units were being withdrawn from the GDR.
During perestroika, Vitaly created a construction cooperative. Until 1990, he served as head of the construction department of Vladikavkaz. According to a contract concluded with a Spanish construction company in 1990, he went to Spain as an architect to design houses for immigrants from Ossetia.
Family of Vitaly Kaloev
In 1991, Vitaly married Svetlana Gagieva (born in 1958). After graduating from SOGU in 1983, Svetlana received a degree in economics. Svetlana’s career began successfully from an ordinary bank employee to the head of a department. At one time she occupied the chair of director of the commercial bank Adamon Bank. When she met Kaloev, she worked as deputy director for finance at the Daria brewery.
Vitaly and Svetlana had two children - a boy and a girl. Son Konstantin was born on November 19, 1991, daughter Diana on March 7, 1998. Konstantin was attracted to space, and he devoted a lot of time to it; he was also interested in paleontology. Before the disaster, he managed to complete five classes at secondary school No. 5 in Vladikavkaz.
Tragedy over Lake Constance
In 2002, Kaloev had already devoted himself to Spain for two years. That year he completed the construction of a cottage near Barcelona and was awaiting the arrival of his family, whom he had not seen for 9 months.
For a trip to Spain, Vitaly’s family came to Moscow to buy plane tickets and fly to a loved one, but this was never possible. After three hours of torment, Svetlana was offered last-minute tickets to board a Bashkir Airlines plane, which, due to an error by the air traffic controller, crashed in the sky over Lake Constance.
Having heard about the tragedy, Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and then to Uberlingen (Germany), where this sad event took place. Police were at the scene of the plane crash. They did not want to let Vitaly go to the scene until he explained to them about the death of his wife and two children.
There, near Lake Constance, three kilometers from the plane crash, Vitaly found the body of his daughter Diana, and ten days later the bodies of his wife and son.
Air traffic controller Peter Nielsen in the life of Vitaly Kaloev
On that ill-fated day in 2002, Peter Nilsson and his partner were at the aircraft control panel. The partner left the console for a while and handed over control to Peter. Some of the equipment was not working at that moment. And at the same time, two planes (cargo and passenger) were moving in the sky towards each other. Airplane pilots in flight are guided both by automation and by the actions of the dispatcher; the dispatcher’s word is decisive. At that moment, listening to the words of the dispatcher was a mistake, which led to an inevitable disaster. On July 2, 2002, 71 people died, most of them children.
Vitaly Kaloev repeatedly contacted the Swiss airline with a request for an apology from the company and directly from Peter Nilsson to all the relatives of the victims. But the company did not heed his request. Peter Nilsson was transferred to another location after the disaster.
Vitaly, with the help of a detective, found the dispatcher’s place of residence and approached him with a request for an apology. To which I received a refusal. Vitaly’s cup of patience was already full; he mortally wounded Peter with fourteen blows of a knife.
A Swiss court sentenced Vitaly Kaloev to eight years in prison; for exemplary behavior, he was released ahead of schedule.
Upon leaving prison, Vitaly took his things and letters, weighing 20 kg, which his admirers wrote to him, supporting him in difficult times.
Return of Vitaly Kaloev to his homeland
After imprisonment, Vitaly returned to his homeland in North Ossetia. Accepted the leadership post of Deputy Minister of Construction and Architecture. While occupying this post, he helped people in every possible way who needed help. He succeeded 40-50 percent.
In 2016, he left the leadership position due to retirement.
13 years after the terrible tragedy, Vitaly remarried. The new wife's name is Irina, the wedding took place according to Ossetian tradition. According to Vitaly, if there was an Ossetian wedding, then that’s it. They just go to the registry office to get a stamp. All relatives gather at the wedding.
AdvertisingVitaly Kaloev is a seemingly ordinary person, a Soviet architect and builder. But the event that occurred on July 1, 2002, radically changed the man’s life, completely depriving it of meaning.
In a plane crash, Vitaly Konstantinovich lost his wife and two children. The grief-stricken father and loving husband decided to punish the dispatcher Peter Nielsen who was responsible for the tragedy. This story has acquired a global scale: Vitaly’s act is talked about not only in Russia, but also in other countries.
A former architect from Vladikavkaz, who lost his entire family in a plane crash and was later convicted of murdering a Swiss airline dispatcher, has married for the second time.
Vitaly Kaloev, today, new family: about personal
According to the memoirs of Yuri, Vitaly’s brother, the younger Kaloev was in no hurry to get married. Konstantin Kambolatovich dreamed of his son getting married and even raised four bulls as a holiday gift, but Vitaly first wanted to get on his feet and then start a family to provide for his wife and children.
Kaloev met his future bride, Svetlana Gagievskaya, at a bank where she worked as a director.
In 1991, in the winter, the lovers got married, there was a large-scale celebration in the Kaloev family: Vitaly finally got married, and even the relatives liked the bride. The couple had two children: son Kostya in 1991 and daughter Diana in 1998.
The Kaloyev family lived amicably; the man still had home footage of happy times when everyone was smiling.
Vitaly Kaloev, today, new family: when, what happened?
Kaloyev's first wife and their two children died in a plane crash in 2002. Two planes collided over Lake Constance on the border of Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
The plane was flying to Barcelona, almost all the passengers on board were children who received free trips to Spain from the state for good studies and victories at the Olympics. Therefore, the company decided to sell off the remaining eight seats: there were 71 people on board the plane.
The airliner flew over Germany late at night; the private Swiss company Skyguide was managing the flights. At the time of the tragedy, 2 people were working in the control room, one of whom was away for a break. 34-year-old Peter Nielsen had to independently cope with two remote controls and give commands to the pilots.
Some of the equipment in the control room was turned off, and the telephone connection did not work. Peter Nielsen noticed late that the Boeing, which was flying to Brussels, was on the same flight level with the Tu-154 aircraft of Bashkir Airlines. Peter tried to correct the situation and gave orders for flight 2937 to descend. At the same time, the TCAS electronic automatic system gave the same command to the Boeing to descend.
The pilots of Flight 611 tried to inform Nielsen that they had complied with the TCAS command, but the air traffic controller was giving instructions to another crew and listened to the message from the Boeing command.
The planes collided at right angles over Lake Constance, near the town of Iberlingen in Germany on July 1, 2002 at 21:35. All people on board both crews were killed.
In 2004, Vitaly Kaloev killed Skyguide airline dispatcher Peter Nielsen, whom he considered responsible for the plane crash.
Kaloev himself actually admitted his guilt. The court sentenced the Russian to 8 years in prison, but in November 2007 Kaloyev was released early.
Vitaly Kaloev, today, new family: after the tragedy
After the two planes collided, lawsuits began between the airlines.
Bashkir Airlines filed a lawsuit against the Federal Republic of Germany for using the services of foreign commercial organizations, and against Skyguide for employee negligence and equipment failure.
During the investigation, Peter Nielsen was not fired and continued to perform his job duties.
Winterthur, the insurer of the Swiss airline, paid compensation to the relatives of the victims in the amount of $150 thousand.
After the incident, Vitaly Kaloev lost the meaning of life, which was family. The grief-stricken father spent almost every day at the cemetery. Work lost its meaning for him.
The only thing Vitaly saw as a goal for himself was ordinary human apologies and recognition of his guilt by Peter Nielsen, who, according to the man, was to blame for the tragedy that occurred. The dispatcher got away with only a fine and continued to work for Skyguide, living a normal life with his wife and small children.
In the summer of 2003, Vitaly came to Skyguide in search of justice. The man hoped to wait for an apology for his broken life. According to the recollections of the director of the Swiss organization Allen Rosier, Vitaly behaved excitedly, constantly asking the dispatchers whether Nielsen was to blame for the incident. He also sought a meeting with Peter, who was working that day, but was refused.
On February 24, 2004, Nilsen died from 12 stab wounds on the threshold of his own home in the presence of his family. Kaloev did not admit to what he had done, but he also did not deny his guilt, because due to clouding of his mind, he does not remember what happened that day.
A Swiss court sentenced Kaloyev to 8 years in prison, proving that he killed the dispatcher. When Vitaly Konstantinovich was serving his sentence, letters from all over the world arrived in prison in his name from unknown people who expressed condolences to the prisoner. There were so many messages that they were counted by weight. Over the course of 2 years, about 20 kg of letters accumulated, which the architect took away after his release.
In the fall of 2008, Vitaly was released early for good behavior. In Russia this man was greeted as a real hero. Kaloev admits: he was pleased that hundreds of people supported him, but he himself does not consider himself a hero and does not want to be pitied.
Russian cinema could not ignore the story of Vitaly Kaloev. Sarik Andreasyan became the director of the drama “Unforgiven”, in which the main character was presented on the screen by Dmitry Nagiyev. The premiere took place on September 27, 2018. The leading actor himself considers this work the best in his creative career.
Vitaly Kaloev, today, new family: new family
After his release, Vitaly managed to improve his personal life.
The man found new love and married for the second time in 2012. His wife was Irina Dzarasova, an engineer at Sevkavkazenergo OJSC. Only close relatives of the newlyweds were present at the wedding.
Now Kaloev and his wife live in the house that Vitaly built for his first family. This is a large building with many rooms, stucco molding made in the national style. The architect built the mansion with the hope that his children and grandchildren would live here.
Kaloev did not hide the fact that he got married again, but he did not talk about it widely either.
Vitaly Kaloev said that his new wife’s name is Irina and that the wedding took place according to the Ossetian rite.
“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. All our relatives gather at our wedding. Everyone already knows. This is the registry office for us... He didn’t get down on his knees. I said that I want to start a family. Do you want it or not? In a simple way."
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15 years have passed since the tragedy over Lake Constance. The film “Consequences” once again reminded the whole world of the act of the inconsolable father Vitaly Kaloev. Then the public was divided into two camps. Some justified his actions by citing his grave condition and passion. Others considered him a brutal killer who killed the dispatcher in front of his wife and children. How does Vitaly Kaloev, who lost his entire family, live now, and how did this terrible story end? Let's find out all the details and try to understand this extraordinary incident.
Biography
Born on January 15, 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz). My father was a school teacher - he taught the Ossetian language. Mother worked as a kindergarten teacher. Vitaly was the youngest in a large family - there were three brothers and three sisters in total. He graduated from school with honors and went to study the art of architecture. While studying, he worked part-time as a construction foreman. Before perestroika, he worked as an architect and took part in the construction of the Sputnik military camp.
In the difficult years after the collapse of the USSR, he formed his own construction cooperative. Since 1999 he lived in Spain, where he designed houses for his compatriots.
Family
Vitaly Kaloev married Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva in 1991. The girl graduated from the Faculty of Economics and successfully built a career. Starting as a simple bank employee, she rose to the rank of department head. On November 19, 1991, the first child appeared in the family. The boy was named Konstantin in honor of his paternal grandfather. Diana was born on March 7, 1998. Kostya chose his sister’s name. At school, the boy studied well and was drawn to astronautics and paleontology.
Unlucky flight
Vitaly Kaloev had not seen his family for nine months and was looking forward to their arrival in Spain. He worked successfully in Barcelona and managed to complete the project by the time his family arrived. Svetlana and her children could not buy tickets in Moscow until seats became available on that same Bashkir Airlines plane.
Late at night on July 2, 2002, two planes collided in the skies over southern Germany: a passenger TU-154 and a cargo Boeing 757. Both crews were killed, and children were killed - 52 children aged from 8 to 16 years. Almost all of them were students at the Ufa school for especially gifted children. They were flying to Barcelona. They were awarded vouchers for their academic success and brilliant results in school competitions.
Collision
This disaster became the worst tragedy in the history of civil aviation of the 21st century. The plane collision occurred in the skies over Germany, so the investigation was carried out by the German prosecutor's office and the Federal Bureau of Air Accident Investigation. It took two years to establish the cause of the disaster. For the Germans, the main questions were two: how did the dangerous approach of two aircraft occur and why was the collision avoidance system unable to prevent the disaster?
The commission found that the aircraft collision was the result of an error by the Skyguide dispatcher, contradictions in the instructions of the international civil aviation organization and the rules of the collision avoidance system. And also because of the incorrect actions of the TU-154 crew. Further investigation proved the accusations against the Russian pilots to be unfounded, and they will be cleared of blame for the collision. However, the fate of another Russian, whose trial took place at the end of October 2005, is already clear. deprived him of his family and faith in justice.
The most superficial glance at the commission’s findings shows that the results of the investigation are extremely contradictory. If at the time of the crash the pilots followed the dispatcher's instructions, then the dispatcher is to blame. If in a critical situation the pilots acted contrary to instructions from the ground, then the pilots themselves are to blame, and the dispatcher has absolutely nothing to do with it. This strange fact would have gone unnoticed if not for one dramatic incident in the small Swiss town of Kloten.
Murder of Peter Nielsen
On February 24, 2004, in the Zurich suburb of Kloten, a certain Peter Nielsen was brutally murdered on the threshold of his own home. The killer struck the victim numerous times with a bladed weapon, which was later found near the scene of the incident. It turned out to be a souvenir knife worth 54. A neighbor of the murdered man testified that a few minutes before the incident, a stranger asked her in bad German where Peter Nielsen lived.
Hot on the trail, a sketch of the suspect was compiled. However, no witnesses to the crime could be found. This was strange because Kloten is a small village where the houses are located a few meters apart. The streets, approaches and entrances are clearly visible from the windows, and all life goes on in full view of the neighbors. The Swiss police immediately rejected the robbery version. The criminal or criminals did not touch anything in the house. Why then was it necessary to take the life of a simple resident of a Swiss village?
Identifying the killer
The answer came at the moment when it became clear that Peter Nielsen was the same controller whose erroneous commands led to the collision of two planes. The very next day, the police arrested Russian citizen Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev. According to the Swiss investigation, the accused went to the dispatcher's house the night before and had a conversation with a neighbor. The man rang the doorbell, and when the owner of the house came out, he tried to talk to him. Then there was a quarrel, and Kaloev was the first to take out a knife. Vitaly Kaloev killed the dispatcher, stabbing him 12 times. Initially, the first suspect was another Russian, Vladimir Savchuk. He also lost his entire family in a plane crash, but had an airtight alibi. On the day of the murder he was in Russia.
Reasons and motives
The motive for the crime, according to Swiss law enforcement agencies, could be the Russian’s personal revenge. In Kaloev he lost his entire family - his wife and two children. But he did not admit his guilt in the murder of the dispatcher. From the investigation materials. “I knocked, identified myself and gestured to be invited into the house. He didn’t want to invite me and took on a defiant look. I said nothing, took a photograph of my dead children out of my pocket and handed it to him, telling him to look.” What happened after that, Kaloev does not remember. During interrogation, he stated: “I don’t remember what actually happened. But when I see the evidence, I think it was me who killed Mr. Nielsen.” The Swiss prosecutor's office considered these words of the Russian an official admission of his guilt. However, some of the facts raise more questions than answers. Why did Kaloev go to kill the dispatcher, taking with him an inconvenient pocket knife? Why did Nilsen wait for the killer to pull out a gun and open it instead of hiding in the house?
The tragedy of Vitaly Kaloev
The Russian was among the first to arrive at the site of the plane crash and was eager to examine the accident site together with the rescuers. Having learned that his entire family was on this flight, he was given permission to enter the cordoned off area. He wandered for a long time between the wreckage of the plane, trying to find his wife and children. Finally, three kilometers from the crash site, he found the beads of his youngest daughter, and then Diana herself. A little later, he discovered the body of his son. It later turned out that the boy fell right next to the intersection that Vitaly was passing by, but he did not recognize him as his child. Witnesses and video footage served as the best evidence of the man’s unbearable grief: he was choking on sobs and literally could not control himself during these terrible days. He did not leave the scene of the plane crash until the last hours. Vitaly Kaloev not only lost his family - he lost his life.
Support and assistance
Kaloev perfectly remembers all the moments of being at the scene of the tragedy. He recalls how at first they did not want to let him participate in the search, but then the situation changed. Volunteers and police simply could not stand being in this territory. People fainted and were removed. When he discovered the place where his Diana fell, he began to touch the ground, trying to understand whether the soul of his child remained here or had already gone to heaven. He felt the beads with his fingers and asked the German woman if it was possible to erect a monument to Diana in this place? Fundraising began immediately, and later the architect erected a monument to all the victims of the disaster on this site. It represents a torn string of beads.
Questionable treatment
After his arrest, Kaloev was placed in a psychiatric hospital. During the entire time Vitaly was there, there was not a single independent examination that would objectively assess the Russian’s condition and methods of treatment. He spent a whole year in the clinic. What happened to his memory during this time? One thing is clear - even after many months of treatment, Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev never took responsibility for the death of dispatcher Nielsen. According to investigators, the Russian wanted to avenge the death of his wife and two children. This is a serious motive. But why then did Kaloev delay taking revenge for almost a year and a half, since he learned the name of the dispatcher in the first days after the disaster?
Sentence
On October 26, 2005, the story of Vitaly Kaloev again appeared on the pages of all printed publications. The Russian was sentenced to eight years in prison. The world community again remembered those terrible days and the tragedy over Lake Constance. The people of Switzerland themselves did not expect such a harsh sentence. In prison, the Russian received batches of letters in which people expressed their support and wished him a speedy release. He corresponded with some people, in particular with one Swiss woman. She sent him cards and cheered him up these two years. Her friend's children drew pictures for him. At home in Ossetia, the people were indignant and demanded a review of the case. Based on circumstantial evidence alone and without a confession, Kaloyev was imprisoned for eight years.
Liberation
The Swiss authorities did not interfere with the release of the Russian after two years of imprisonment. For exemplary behavior, he was released and returned home. In North Ossetia he was greeted as a national hero. The first thing the man did was go to the cemetery, where he cried for a long time at the grave of his wife and children. The years could not erase all the pain and resentment from his memory and heart. Now he could calmly talk about what he had to endure during those year and a half. He didn't need monetary compensation. All he wanted was to hear words of apology from the company itself. Without getting even a word of repentance from them, he went home to the dispatcher. But he behaved impudently and knocked photographs of dead children out of his hands. He doesn’t remember further events, but even if his hands are really bloody, he didn’t do it for fun. The fate of Vitaly Kaloev was very difficult, and he paid in full for this crime.
Another life
Returning home, Kaloev received the post of Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Policy of the republic. He actively took part in many public events. Everyone who knew and communicated with Vitaly characterizes him as a kind and sympathetic person. He will never pass by someone else's grief. During the war in South Ossetia, he was seen in the ranks of the militia, but no one began to confirm this information.
Many are interested in where Vitaly Kaloev lives and what is happening to him now. At the moment, favorable changes have occurred in his life. In 2014, Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time. His wife was a kind, decent woman. He does not disclose details of his family life. What is known is that he still lives in the same house where his previous family lived. On his anniversary (60 years) he received the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia”. He answers all questions about his actions and Nielsen’s family like this: “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? Everyone decides for himself how strong Vitaly Kaloev’s guilt is in front of another family.
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, 71 people died, 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,”- indicates 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.
Computer reconstruction of the collision. Image: Wikipedia “I knocked. Nielsen 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 with the photographs to him for the second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped my hand and the photographs 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. Kaloyev was sentenced to eight years, but was released early in November 2008.
In Vladikavkaz, Deputy Minister Kaloev led federal and international projects: the TV 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. “A very technically complex project - linear calculations, nonlinear calculations, each element separately and the entire structure as a whole,”— the retired deputy minister evaluates 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 couldn’t 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, good 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, that 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 has done 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’re sitting: there’s nowhere to rush, there’s 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 and 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 pities the German volunteers and police 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, “In general, they are very sincere people, simple.” “I hinted that I would like to erect a monument in the place where my girl fell, - immediately one German woman began to help and began collecting funds,”- says Kaloev. And then he returns to the days of searching: “I put my hands on the ground - I tried to understand where the soul remained: in this place, in the ground - or flew away to where. I moved my hands and saw 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 could come to Switzerland one more time 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 there 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 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 they told me 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 crash site of the Tu-154M plane. Photo: Reuters “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 appreciated the ceremonial meeting of the Swiss prisoner in Domodedovo Vladimir Ovchinsky, currently advisor to the Russian Minister of Internal Affairs. Opponents of the glorification of Kaloyev especially protested the statement of the Nashi movement: “Kaloev 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.
“You can’t teach how to live after this.”, he assures when it comes to the relatives of those killed in the plane crash over Sinai. — The pain may have dulled a little, but it does not go away. You can force yourself into work, you have to work - at work a person is distracted: you work, you solve people’s problems... But there is no recipe. I still haven't recovered. But there is no need to give up. If you need to cry, cry, but it’s better alone: no one saw me with tears, I didn’t show them anywhere. Maybe, perhaps, on the very first day. We must live with the destiny that is destined for us. Live and help people."
Receptions with Deputy Minister Kaloyev on personal matters, of course, practically did not stop for all eight years: national tradition plus the status of a famous fellow countryman. “Ask for money for medicine, building materials for repairs, for someone to arrange a high-tech operation,— 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 will. There was a man named Kuznetsov, he knocked down an Uzbek with one blow in St. Petersburg when he began to pester his son. They organized a teleconference, I came out in support of him.”
Now most of all Vitaly wants to be left alone: “I want to live as a private person - that’s it, I don’t even go to work.”. First, the heart: bypass surgery. Secondly, Vitaly got married last year, thirteen years after the tragedy. The only thing he would like “from the public” is to come to Moscow on Victory Day, to join the “Immortal Regiment” with a portrait of his father: Konstantin Kaloev, artilleryman.
“I was provoked a lot on the topic of how, for example, Bashkiria, where most of those killed on that plane are from, differs from Ossetia, Ossetia from central Russia,” says Vitaly. - They meant, of course, to lead to conversations about blood feud and similar things. I always answered this way: it is absolutely no different, because we are all Russians. A person who loves his family, his children, will do anything for them. There are many people like me in Russia. If I had not gone and walked this path to the end - 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 Russian anyway. Incomprehensible, scary Russians.”
