Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 Tail of Bashkirian Tu-154 smouldering in Germany. Image File history File links Bashkirian2937. ... Summary Date   1 July 2002 Type   Mid-air collision Site   Überlingen, Germany Fatalities   71 Injuries   No survivors Aircraft Aircraft type   Tupolev 154 Operator   Bashkirian Airlines Tail number   RA-85816 Passengers   57 Crew   12 Survivors   0

Aircraft type Boeing 757 Operator DHL Tail number A9C-DHL Passengers 0 Crew 2 Survivors 0

Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 was a Russian aircraft which collided with a DHL-owned cargo plane, on July 1, 2002 at 21:35 (UTC), near the German town of Überlingen, near Lake Constance. Both planes crashed, killing all aboard. The accident was caused by problems with the air traffic control system, and the controller on duty was later stabbed to death by a man who lost his wife and both of his children in the accident. July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... The Tupolev Tu-154 is a Russian medium-range trijet airliner. ... American Airlines Boeing 757 Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 at LAX in August 2003. ... The DHL logo A DHL Boeing 757 A DHL Sprinter van DHL Boat DHL is a company that provides international shipping of documents and freight as well as contract logistics. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is a high-precision atomic time standard which approximately tracks Universal Time (UT). ... Ãœberlingen Ãœberlingen is a city in south-western Germany. ... Map of the Bodensee; Schweiz is Switzerland, Deutschland is Germany, and Osterreich is Austria. ... Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) at Schiphol Airport Air Traffic Control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. ...

The flights involved

The Bashkirian Airlines plane was a Tupolev 154, travelling from Moscow to Barcelona carrying 57 passengers and 12 crew. Fifty-two of the passengers were Russian children whose school had won them a trip to Spain. BAL Bashkirian Airlines is an airline based in Ufa, Russia. ... The Tupolev Tu-154 is a Russian medium-range trijet airliner. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... Location Coordinates : Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Barcelona (Catalan) Spanish name Barcelona Nickname Ciutat Comtal Postal code 08001-08080 Area code 34 (Spain) + 93 (Barcelona) Website http://www. ...

The DHL plane was flight 611, a Boeing 757 travelling from Bergamo, Italy to Brussels, Belgium with two crewmembers aboard. American Airlines Boeing 757 Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 at LAX in August 2003. ... Bergamo is a town in Lombardy, Italy, about 40km northeast of Milan. ... Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Brussels City Hall Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, pronounced ; French: Bruxelles, pronounced in Belgian French and often by non-Belgian speakers of French; German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium, the...

The accident itself

The two planes were flying at 36,000 feet, on a collision course. The air space, even though it lies in Germany, was controlled from Zürich by the private Swiss airspace control company Skyguide. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) at Schiphol Airport Air Traffic Control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. ... Skyguide (official name: Schweizerische Aktiengesellschaft für zivile und militärische Flugsicherung; Swiss stock company for civil and military air traffic control. ...

The air-traffic controller was working two work stations at the same time and was late to realise the danger facing the two planes. However, less than a minute before the crash he did contact the Russian plane, instructing the pilot to descend by 1,000 feet to avoid collision with crossing traffic (i.e., the DHL Boeing). Seconds after the Russian crew initiated the descent, their TCAS collision avoidance system instructed them to climb, while at about the same time the TCAS on the DHL flight instructed that pilot to descend. Had both planes followed those instructions, it is unlikely that the collision would have occurred. The DHL pilot followed the TCAS instructions and initiated a descent, but could not immediately inform the air-traffic controller about this, due to the fact that the air-traffic controller was dealing with the Bashkirian plane. The Russian pilot did not, however, follow the TCAS instruction and continued to descend, as instructed by the air-traffic controller. TCAS and IVSI Indicator The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (or TCAS) is a computer system installed on board many large aircraft, designed to prevent mid-air collisions. ... Air traffic controllers are persons who operate the air traffic control system to expedite and maintain a safe and orderly flow of air traffic and help prevent mid-air collisions. ...

Unaware of the TCAS-issued alerts, the air-traffic controller at Zürich repeated his instruction to the Russian plane to descend, giving the crew incorrect information as to the position of the other plane, due to the fact that maintenance work was being carried out on the primary radar, and had to use a slower system. Precious seconds were lost as the Tupolev crew tried to locate the DHL flight visually in the dark, all the time following the ground control orders instead of those given by the collision avoidance system. Thus, both planes descended. Air traffic controllers are persons who operate the air traffic control system to expedite and maintain a safe and orderly flow of air traffic and help prevent mid-air collisions. ...

The results were fatal. The planes collided at a right angle, with the DHL aircraft's vertical stabilizer slicing through the Tu-154's fuselage. The Tupolev promptly exploded and broke into two, while the 757 struggled for a further 7 kilometres before crashing near a mountainside, one engine parted explosively before it hit the ground. All 71 people aboard both planes were killed.

Other factors in the crash

Only a single air-traffic controller, Peter Nielsen of ACC Zürich, was controlling the airspace the planes were in. The only other controller on duty was resting in another room for the night. This was against the regulations, but had been a common practice for years and was known and tolerated by the management. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In addition, a ground based collision warning system, which would have alerted the controller to imminent collisions early, had been switched off for maintenance (of which the controller was unaware of the extent at the time). The phone lines at Skyguide were down, also as part of maintenance work, which also prevented adjacent air-traffic controllers at Karlsruhe from phoning in a warning. Karlsruhe (population 283,959 in 2005) is a city in the south west of Germany, in the Bundesland Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border. ...

In the minutes before the accident, Nielsen was occupied with a delayed flight approaching Friedrichshafen airport. He had to handle two workstations at once, and was struggling with the malfunctioning phone system. Due to these distractions he did not spot the danger until about a minute before impact. Had he ordered the Russian plane to descend earlier, the collision avoidance systems would never have issued any instructions. When he realized that the situation (the multiple factors in two workstations) was overwhelming, it was too late to summon assistance.

Finally, the Bashkirian crew was delayed in getting vital instructions from Nielsen, as their transmission calling for instructions on how to avoid the DHL plane was blocked by the Skyguide transmission to the cargo plane. In essence, while Nielsen was speaking to the DHL flight, the early calls for assistance from the Russian crew could not be received by the controller. This caused a 23-second delay in Nielsen's response to the commercial flight, which could also have made a difference in avoiding the collision.

Related events

Many believe that this accident could have been avoided if the proper lessons had been taken from a near-miss which occurred about a year before the Bashkirian-DHL collision. Two Japanese airliners, both Japan Air, nearly hit each other in Japanese skies. The two planes were on a collision course, and the pilots of both planes were receiving conflicting instructions from their Collision Avoidance Systems and the flight controller. Disaster was avoided because, by sheer chance, both pilots, each unaware of the other's decisions, followed the TCAS instructions, ignoring the controller's orders. Even so, they missed each other by less than 100 meters, and the abrupt maneuvers that were necessary to avert disaster left about a hundred passengers hurt, a few of them suffering severe injuries. Japanese authorities called for measures that would prevent similar accidents from happening, but they were ignored. Japan Airlines Corporation ) (TYO: 9205 ), or JAL, is the largest airline operator in Asia. ...

Peter Nielsen was stabbed to death in front of his home in Zürich on February 24, 2004. A Russian man, Vitaly Kaloyev, was arrested within a few days. Kaloyev had lost his wife and both of his children, who were aboard Bashkirian Airlines 2937. He is reported to have suffered a nervous breakdown following the loss of his entire family, especially since he was one of the first relatives to arrive at the crash site. Kaloyev participated in the search for the bodies and, tragically enough, located his own daughter's body, which was surprisingly intact (unlike his wife's and son's, which were found only days later, mutilated). Kaloyev spent the first year after the accident lingering at the graves of his family, and on the memorial service for the first anniversary of the tragedy, he asked the head of Skyguide about the possibility of meeting the controller who had been responsible for the disaster. He was ignored. After travelling to Zürich and stabbing Nielsen, Kaloyev was found in his hotel room, apparently in shock. He claimed having no memory of what he had done, and was taken to a mental hospital, where he was to be evaluated in order to determine if he is fit to stand trial. February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Answering questions from the judge, Vitaly Kaloyev said that the plane crash above Lake Constance had put an end to his life. He said that his children were the youngest among others on board the crashed Tu-154 liner, so there was even no need for him to identify the bodies. Kaloyev said that he was crushed with the loss of his family: “I have been living on the cemetery for almost two years, sitting behind their graves,” said he.

Kaloyev presented a document received from a law firms in Hamburg dated 11 November 2003. It was an amicable agreement, in which Skyguide offered Kaloyev 60,000 Swiss franks for the death of his wife and 50,000 franks for the death of each of his two children. In return, Skyguide asked Vitaly Kaloyev to decline any claims to the company. The document infuriated the man: he decided to meet the company's Director Alan Rossier and flight control officer Peter Nielson in person.

“Apparently he did not expect that he would have to answer for the results of his work”, Kaloyev said. “He murmured something to me. Then I showed him some pictures of my children and said: They were my children. What would you feel if you saw your children in coffins? I was infuriated about Skyguide's initiative to haggle over my dead children,” the man said.

Vitaly Kaloyev said that he wanted Peter Nielsen to apologize to him for the death of his family. “He hit me on the hand, when I was holding the envelope with the photographs of my children. I only remember that I had a very disturbing feeling, as if the bodies of my children were turning over in their graves,” said he. The man added that he did not remember what he did afterwards.

On October 26, 2005 Kaloyev was sentenced to eight years of prison. Kaloyev remains incarcerated in Switzerland – taking into account his 610 days incarceration before the sentence he should be freed in 2011. October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 66 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2011 (MMXI) will be a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Nielsen's death is made even more tragic by the fact that in truth managerial incompetence and systems failures were to blame for the accident. As explained above, a series of coincidences, of which Kaloyev was unaware, precipitated the accident. Experts have argued that, given the malfunctioning phone system, inadequate staffing levels and the co-occurrence of the problem in Friedrichshafen, Nielsen could not even be blamed for the disaster. He could have prevented it, had he been fortunate enough to notice the risk of collision sooner, but since he did not, many factors made it nearly impossible for Nielsen, or anyone who had been there, to prevent the accident. In fact, Nielsen had retired from his job as controller, since he had been struck by grief and guilt over the incident. At Skyguide, his former colleagues maintain, to this day, a vase with a white rose over Nielsen's workstation.

On May 19, 2004, the German federal aviation accident investigative office BFU made the results of their inquiry into the crash public. Skyguide, after initially having blamed the Russian pilot for the accident, accepted responsibility and has paid compensation to some of the Russian families. A criminal investigation of the Skyguide actions is ongoing as of May 2004. May 19 is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (140th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (translation: German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation) is the German federal agency responsible for air accident investigation. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On July 27, 2006, the court of Konstanz gave the fault of the accident exclusively to the Federal Republic of Germany, since it was unlawful of Germany to give away the flight surveillance to Skyguide. July 27 is the 208th day (209th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 157 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Konstanz (in English formerly known as Constance) is a university town of around 80,000 inhabitants at the eastern end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. ...

On August 07, 2006, a Swiss prosecutor filed manslaughter charges against eight employees of Skyguide. The Winterthur prosecutor called for jail terms of six to 15 months, alleging "homicide by negligence". August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Winterthur is a city in the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland. ...

Conflicting orders

According to the section on TCAS operations in the flight operations manual: If an instruction to manoeuvre is received simultaneously from an RA (resolution advisories, i.e. the TCAS) and from ATC, the advice given by RA should be followed. Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) at Schiphol Airport Air Traffic Control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. ...

It is not required to notify the ATC prior responding to an RA. This manoeuvre does not require any ATC clearance.

External links

• Photos of the crash site

Official releases

• Investigation Report of the German BFU (PDF), and also:
  • Appendices 1 and 3
  • Appendices 2 and 4-10
• Intermediary report by the German BFU (PDF)
• CVR transcript of communication around the accident (PDF)

Press

• Guardian piece on the murder of Peter Nielsen
• Skyguide accepts blame for the crash
• Peter Nielsen stabbed to death
• A woman accompanying the air traffic controller?

On conflicting orders

• ACAS II bullitin from Eurocontrol: Follow the RA! (PDF)
• ACAS guiding material: CAP 579 (PDF)