Skyguide traffic controller killed

http://news.airwise.com/stories/2004/02/1077659102.html

An assailant stabbed to death the air traffic controller who was on duty
when two planes collided over southern Germany in July 2002, killing 71
people, Swiss police said on Tuesday.

The 36-year old Danish national, whose name was unavailable, was employed by
Skyguide, the Swiss air traffic control in charge of monitoring parts of
Germany's airspace just across the border from Switzerland.

A spokesman for Skyguide said the man had been in charge of monitoring air
traffic in the region around Lake Constance when the two planes -- a Tupolev
TU154 operated by Bashkirian Airlines and a Boeing 757 cargo plane operated
by DHL -- collided in mid-air.

The victims were mostly Russian children. Zurich police said in a statement
an unknown man had called on the air traffic controller at his home outside
Zurich and, after a short verbal exchange, stabbed him to death.

A spokesman said it was "totally open" whether the crime was in any way
related to the air disaster. He said police were still looking for the
assailant, described as a dark-haired man in his early 50s who was speaking
"broken German".

Skyguide has been criticized for its role in the air accident after
investigators revealed that only one controller was on duty when it
happened, while his partner was on a break.

Investigators also said the agency's collision alert system was out of
action for maintenance, and work on its telephone system meant a warning
call from German colleagues never got through.

In a statement released just days after the accident, the air traffic
controller had acknowledged that errors in the traffic control network
contributed to the disaster.

(Reuters)




HECTOP
PP-ASEL-IA
http://www.maxho.com
maxho_at_maxho.com

My bet is that one of the fathers of the Russian children did it...

The controller in this case clearly screwed up since he instructed the
Russian jet to descend when the Russian crew told him they had an RA
instructing them to climb. Controllers are required to instruct
flight crews to follow the RA when an RA occurs, and crews are
required to follow the RA. The Russians don't appear to have given
proper training to their crews regarding the TCAS system because the
crew didn't ignore the controller like they should have and followed
the RA.

Any bets on whether the Russian government will extradite the perp to
Switzerland if he makes it back to Russia?

Dean

"HECTOP" wrote in message .. .
http://news.airwise.com/stories/2004/02/1077659102.html

An assailant stabbed to death the air traffic controller who was on duty
when two planes collided over southern Germany in July 2002, killing 71
people, Swiss police said on Tuesday.

The 36-year old Danish national, whose name was unavailable, was employed by
Skyguide, the Swiss air traffic control in charge of monitoring parts of
Germany's airspace just across the border from Switzerland.

A spokesman for Skyguide said the man had been in charge of monitoring air
traffic in the region around Lake Constance when the two planes -- a Tupolev
TU154 operated by Bashkirian Airlines and a Boeing 757 cargo plane operated
by DHL -- collided in mid-air.

The victims were mostly Russian children. Zurich police said in a statement
an unknown man had called on the air traffic controller at his home outside
Zurich and, after a short verbal exchange, stabbed him to death.

A spokesman said it was "totally open" whether the crime was in any way
related to the air disaster. He said police were still looking for the
assailant, described as a dark-haired man in his early 50s who was speaking
"broken German".

Skyguide has been criticized for its role in the air accident after
investigators revealed that only one controller was on duty when it
happened, while his partner was on a break.

Investigators also said the agency's collision alert system was out of
action for maintenance, and work on its telephone system meant a warning
call from German colleagues never got through.

In a statement released just days after the accident, the air traffic
controller had acknowledged that errors in the traffic control network
contributed to the disaster.

(Reuters)




HECTOP
PP-ASEL-IA
http://www.maxho.com
maxho_at_maxho.com

(Dean Wilkinson) wrote:

My bet is that one of the fathers of the Russian children did it...

The controller in this case clearly screwed up since he instructed the
Russian jet to descend when the Russian crew told him they had an RA
instructing them to climb. Controllers are required to instruct
flight crews to follow the RA when an RA occurs, and crews are
required to follow the RA. The Russians don't appear to have given
proper training to their crews regarding the TCAS system because the
crew didn't ignore the controller like they should have and followed
the RA.

Any bets on whether the Russian government will extradite the perp to
Switzerland if he makes it back to Russia?

Dean

I'm surprised the controller was still at the job after such a disastrous
screwup that cost the lives of so many innocent people, children in this case.
I figured he had been fired long ago.

Whatever happened to doing the honorable thing and hanging yourself after
killing so many others?

Derek wrote:

I'm surprised the controller was still at the job after such a disastrous
screwup

He didn't control traffic anymore but did some administrative work. The
official report isn't published yet, so how do you know he disastrously
screw up? Lynching at work?

Stefan

Dean Wilkinson wrote:

The controller in this case clearly screwed up since he instructed the

Interesting that you already know the culprit while the official report
is not yet published.

Stefan

I read the preliminary findings, which included a transcript of the
communications... it was pretty clear.


Stefan wrote in message ...
Dean Wilkinson wrote:

The controller in this case clearly screwed up since he instructed the

Interesting that you already know the culprit while the official report
is not yet published.

Stefan

Dean Wilkinson wrote:

I read the preliminary findings, which included a transcript of the
communications... it was pretty clear.

So the investigation crew are all idiots since they need a year more
than you to understand what was really going on?

Stefan

That is very rude of you to call the investigation team idiots, I'm
sure that they would not be amused....

The investigators are required to follow a rigorous investigation
process, no matter how clear cut a case may be. That takes a lot of
time.

Stefan wrote in message ...
Dean Wilkinson wrote:

I read the preliminary findings, which included a transcript of the
communications... it was pretty clear.

So the investigation crew are all idiots since they need a year more
than you to understand what was really going on?

Stefan

"Stefan" wrote in message
...
Dean Wilkinson wrote:

The controller in this case clearly screwed up since he instructed the

Interesting that you already know the culprit while the official report
is not yet published.

It is interesting that you know who the murder victim was while the official
report is not yet published. In fact, it is interesting that you know there
was a murder at all.

The police will be investigating this incident for some time, perhaps years,
but you are willing to make a snap judgment based on a fragmentary report
printed in some newspaper. :-)

Dean Wilkinson wrote:

The controller in this case clearly screwed up since he instructed the
Russian jet to descend when the Russian crew told him they had an RA
instructing them to climb.

You might like to wait for the accident report, since that isn't what
the initial review of the CVR and FDR indicated.

The TCAS system had warned the Russian crew to climb, but just as they
started to comply, the controller instructed the aircraft to descend.
The Russian crew did not first tell the controller that they had an RA
instructing them to climb, so the controller did not override that
alert.

The DHL crew got an instruction to descend from their TCAS, and
announced that they were doing so.

The Russians don't appear to have given proper training to their
crews regarding the TCAS system because the crew didn't ignore the
controller like they should have and followed the RA.

Again, you don't know what their training is. The pilot didn't follow
the instructions, but he might have done that on his own, contrary to
his training. There has also been some argument that the controller's
instructions should have priority over those of the on-board system.

Why not wait for the accident report instead of making rash, misinformed
accusations?