Passenger Jet Mistakenly Directed Into Cargo Jet

Four air traffic controllers, employees of a Swiss air traffic control company, were convicted Tuesday of negligent homicide in a mid-air collision over German airspace between a cargo jet and passenger jet in 2002 that killed 71 people.

Most of those who perished were Russian schoolchildren on vacation, according to CNN.

There was a lone Skyguide controller on duty July 1, 2002, when a Bashkirian Airlines jet and a DHL cargo jet collided near the south German town of Ueberlingen. The controller, Peter Nielsen, told investigators at the time conditions were very stressful that night because a coworker had taken a break and maintenance on the system adversely affected monitoring and communications.

Other control centers saw the impending collision and tried to call Skyguide, but the phone was out of order. When Nielsen realized what was happening, he gave the respective pilots only 44 seconds of warning then mistakenly directed the Bashkirian pilots to descend. That descent put it right into the DHL jet, according to CNN.

Nielsen was stabbed to death in 2004 by a Russian man who lost his wife and children in the crash.

Three of the four controllers convicted were middle managers and each received a one-year suspended sentence.

Prosecutors blamed a culture of negligence and Skyguide's lack of awareness and contended the accident wasn't caused by just one factor. Some of the defendants placed sole blame on Nielsen.

The fourth controller was ordered to pay an $11,200 fine for his role in the collision and all four are responsible for $20,700 in court costs.

Four additional Skyguide officials were acquitted.

The man who murdered Nielsen, Vitaly Kaloyev, is currently serving a five year, four month prison sentence. A hearing on an appeal to a Zurich court's order for his early release was postponed by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland Thursday and has not been rescheduled, according to the Novosti news service.

FMI: www.skyguide.ch/en, www.dhl.com, www.bashkirianairlines.com