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| The tail section of a crashed Bashkirian Airlines jetliner is seen in this July, 2002 file photo. (File Photo/AirDisaster.Com) |
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
TU-154 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. |
