The fate of Vitaly Kaloev, who killed the air traffic controller responsible for the plane crash over Lake Constance

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

15 years have passed since the tragedy over Lake Constance. The film "Consequences" again reminded the whole world of the act of the inconsolable father of Vitaly Kaloev. Then the public was divided into two camps. Some justified his actions by the most difficult condition and affect. 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? We will 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 an architect. During his studies, he worked as a foreman at a construction site. Worked before perestroikaarchitect and took part in the construction of the Sputnik military camp.

In the difficult years after the collapse of the USSR, he assembled his own building cooperative. Since 1999, he lived in Spain, where he designed houses for his compatriots.

Family

Vitaly Kaloev married in 1991 Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva. The girl graduated from the Faculty of Economics and successfully built a career. Starting from the position of a simple bank employee, she rose to the head of a department. 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 the name for the sister. At school, the boy studied well and was drawn to astronautics and paleontology.

Unhappy flight

Vitaly Kaloev has not seen his relatives for nine months and was looking forward to their arrival in Spain. He successfully worked in Barcelona and managed to hand over the project by the time his family arrived. Svetlana and her children couldn't buy tickets in Moscow until there were seats on that same Bashkir Airlines plane.

Late at night on July 2, 2002, two planes collided in the sky over southern Germany: a passenger TU-154 and a cargo Boeing-757. Both crews died, children died - 52 children aged 8 to 16 years. Almost all of them were students of the Ufa school for especially gifted children. They flew to Barcelona. They were awarded vouchers for academic excellence and brilliant results in school competitions.

Collision

This disaster was the worst tragedy in historycivil aviation of the XXI century. The collision of aircraft occurred in the sky over Germany, so the investigation was carried out by the German prosecutor's office and the federal bureau for the investigation of aircraft accidents. It took two years to establish the cause of the disaster. For the Germans, the main questions were two - how did the dangerous convergence of two aircraft happen and why the collision avoidance system could not prevent the catastrophe?

The commission found that the collision of aircraft was the result of an error by the Skyguide air traffic controller, contradictions in the instructions of the international civil aviation organization and the rules for the operation of the collision avoidance system. And also because of the wrong actions of the TU-154 crew. Further investigation proved the inconsistency of the accusations against the Russian pilots, and the blame for the collision with them will be removed. However, the fate of another Russian, whose trial took place at the end of October 2005, is already clear. The disaster over Lake Constance deprived him of his family and faith in justice.

With the most superficial look at the conclusions of the commission, it is clear that the results of the investigation are extremely contradictory. If at the time of the crash the pilots followed the instructions of the controller, then the controller 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 PeterNielsen

On February 24, 2004, a certain Peter Nielsen was brutally murdered on the threshold of his own house in the Zurich suburb of Kloten. The killer inflicted numerous blows on the victim with cold weapons, which were later found near the scene. It turned out to be a souvenir knife worth 54 Swiss francs. A neighbor of the victim testified that some stranger a few minutes before the incident asked her in bad German where Peter Nielsen lives.

In hot pursuit, an identikit of the suspect was drawn up. However, no witnesses to the crime could be found. It was strange because Kloten is a small village where the houses are several meters apart. Streets, approaches and entrances are visible from the windows, as if in the palm of your hand, and all life goes on in full view of the neighbors. The Swiss police immediately rejected the version of the robbery. 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?

Killer Identification

The answer came at the moment when it became clear that Peter Nielsen was the very controller whose erroneous commands led to the collision of two aircraft. The very next day, the police arrest a 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 wasa quarrel, and Kaloev was the first to take out a knife. Vitaliy Kaloev killed the dispatcher, inflicting 12 stab wounds on him. Initially, another Russian, Vladimir Savchuk, became the first suspect. He, too, lost his entire family in a plane crash, but had a solid 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 personal revenge of a Russian. In a plane crash over Lake Constance, Kaloev lost his entire family - his wife and two children. But he did not admit his guilt in the murder of the dispatcher. From the materials of the investigation. “I knocked, identified myself and motioned for me to be invited into the house. He did not 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 really 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 recognition of his guilt. However, some facts raise more questions than answers. Why did Kaloev go to kill the dispatcher, taking with him an uncomfortable penknife? Why did Nilsen wait for the killer to draw his weapon and open it instead of hiding in the house?

The tragedy of Vitaly Kaloev

The Russian was among the first to arrive at the crash site and rushed to examine the crash site together withrescuers. Upon learning that his entire family was flying 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. Later it turned out that the boy fell right next to the intersection Vitaly was passing by, but he did not recognize his child in it. Witnesses and video filming served as the best proof of the unbearable grief of a man: he was choking in sobs and literally could not control himself in these terrible days. He did not leave the crash site until the last hours. Vitaliy 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 allow him to 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 of the fall of his Diana, 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 immediately began and later the architect erected a monument to all the victims of the disaster on this site. It is a broken string of beads.

Dubious treatment

Afterdetention 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 condition of the Russian and the methods of his 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, Kaloev Vitaly Konstantinovich did not take responsibility for the death of Nielsen's dispatcher. 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 drag out revenge for almost a year and a half, because he learned the name of the dispatcher in the first days after the disaster?

Sentence

On October 26, 2005, the story of Vitaly Kaloev reappeared 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 inhabitants of Switzerland themselves did not expect such a harsh sentence. Packets of letters came to the Russian in prison, 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 encouraged him all 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. On circumstantial evidence alone and without a confession, Kaloev was imprisoned for eight years.

Liberation

Swiss authorities do notbegan to prevent 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. First of all, the man went to the cemetery, where he cried for a long time at the grave of his wife and children. 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 in those one and a half years. He did not need monetary compensation. All he wanted was to hear words of apology from the company itself. Not getting a word of repentance from them, he went home to the dispatcher. But he behaved impudently and knocked out of his hands photographs of dead children. He does not remember further events, but even if his hands are really covered in blood, he did this by no means 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 participated in many social events. Everyone who knew and communicated with Vitaly characterizes him as a kind and sympathetic person. 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 taken place in his life. In 2014, Vitaliy Kaloev married a second time. His wife becamekind, decent woman. He does not disclose the details of his family life. It is only known that he still lives in the same house where his former family lived. On his 60th birthday, he received the medal "For the Glory of Ossetia". To all questions about his act and the Nielsen family, he answers as follows: “His children grow up he althy, cheerful, his wife is happy with her children, his parents are happy with their grandchildren. Who am I to rejoice?" Everyone decides for himself how strong Vitaly Kaloev's guilt is in front of another family.