Überlingen mid-air collision
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1 July 2002 |
| Summary | Collision caused by ATC confusion and compounded by ambiguity in TCAS operation |
| Site |
Überlingen, Germany 47°46′42″N 9°10′26″E / 47.77833°N 9.17389°ECoordinates: 47°46′42″N 9°10′26″E / 47.77833°N 9.17389°E |
| Total fatalities | 71 (all) |
| Total survivors | 0 |
| First aircraft | |
 The Tupolev-Tu-154M involved in the accident in July 1998, prior to its lease to Transeuropean Airlines. |
|
| Type | Tupolev-Tu-154M |
| Operator | Bashkirian Airlines |
| Registration | RA-85816 |
| Flight origin |
Domodedovo Int'l Airport Moscow, Russia |
| Destination |
Barcelona Int'l Airport Barcelona, Spain |
| Passengers | 60 (including 45 children) |
| Crew | 9 |
| Fatalities | 69 (all) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Second aircraft | |
 The DHL Boeing 757 involved in the accident at Brussels Airport in August 1996. |
|
| Type | Boeing 757-23APF |
| Operator | DHL |
| Registration | A9C-DHL |
| Flight origin |
Bahrain Int'l Airport Manama, Bahrain |
| Stopover |
Orio al Serio Airport Bergamo, Italy |
| Destination |
Brussels Airport Brussels, Belgium |
| Passengers | 0 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Fatalities | 2 (all) |
| Survivors | 0 |
On 1 July 2002, Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757 cargo jet, collided in mid-air over the southern German town of Überlingen at 23:35 local time. All 69 passengers and crew aboard the Tu-154 and the two crew members aboard the Boeing 757 were killed.
The official investigation by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (German: Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung, (BFU)) identified as the main cause of the collision a number of shortcomings on the part of the Swiss air traffic control service in charge of the sector involved, and also ambiguities in the procedures regarding the use of TCAS, the on-board aircraft collision avoidance system.
Two years after the crash, Peter Nielsen, the air traffic controller on duty at the time of the collision, was murdered in an apparent act of revenge by Vitaly Kaloyev, a Russian citizen who had lost his wife and two children in the accident.
Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 was a chartered flight from Moscow, Russia, to Barcelona, Spain, carrying sixty passengers and nine crew. Forty-five of the passengers were Russian schoolchildren from the city of Ufa in Bashkortostan on a school trip organized by the local UNESCO committee to the Costa Dorada area of Spain. Most of the parents of the children were high-ranking officials in Bashkortostan. One of the fathers was the head of the local UNESCO committee.
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Wikipedia