[Newsflash] Airplanes collide over Germany - 52 Children Dead

[Grojlach]

Happened just a few hours ago...

Airliners collide over southern Germany

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Two large planes collided over the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttember, a state official said early Tuesday. There was no immediate word on casualties.
A spokesman for the interior ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said it was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the planes, but it was possible they were carrying mostly freight.
The planes were identified as a Russian-made Tupolev 154 and a Boeing 757 cargo plane, German media reports.
The planes went down near the city of Sigmariegen, near Lake Constance. aircraft wreckage was scattered for miles across the countryside, the spokesman said.
State German ARD television interviewed one man who described the crash as two large balls of fire in the sky.
No further information on the aircraft or passengers aboard was immediately available.

Source: CNN

[ 07-02-2002, 05:46 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Hayashi]

Apparently the 757 was a DHL cargo plane, while the Tu-154 was from a Russian airline.

[/)eathKiller]

I wonder what the blackboxes will uncover...

Russian Airline: "I've got you at my 12!"

Cargo Plaine: "Ive got you at MY 12!"

Russian Airline: "Pull Right!"

Cargo Plaine: "your right or mine?"

sadly things like this actually end up resulting in trageties,, and i wouldn't be too suprised if some conversation like that took place, though i actually doubt that they were even in communication and that was a leading factor in the cause of the accident, plaines should be able to contact eachother in mid air and not require a tower to guide them around. It's about time we got rid of the mid-air language barrier too...

[Grojlach]

Worse than I thought...

Mostly Children Dead After Jets Collide Over Germany

UEBERLINGEN, Germany (Reuters) - At least 70 people, including 52 children, died after a Russian passenger plane collided with a cargo jet over southern Germany late Monday.
Swiss air traffic controllers said the pilot of the Tupolev 154 passenger jet carrying Russian children to a holiday in Spain from Moscow reacted too slowly to repeated warnings to reduce altitude before colliding with the cargo plane operated by international courier company DHL.
Officials said on Tuesday the two aircraft crashed in mid-air at 5:40 p.m. EDT (11:40 p.m. local time) above Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border, spreading debris over a wide area and setting a number of buildings including a school on fire.
"I was lying in my bed, saw a ball of fire in the sky and ran out onto the balcony. Behind the forest it looked like a firework display was going off," said Klaus-Dieter Schindler, janitor at a school in the village of Owingen.
"In the glow of the fire I saw wreckage falling out of the sky. It looked like black rain," he said. The landing gear of the Tupolev lay burning just a few hundred meters away.
The two jets were both diving to avoid a crash when they flew into each other, Swiss air traffic controllers who were monitoring the flights said.
The pilot of the Tupolev 154 Russian passenger jet started a steep dive only after Swiss controllers had instructed him to do so three times, Anton Maag an official from Skyguide, the Swiss air traffic controllers who were monitoring the flights, said at a news conference.
He said it was unclear why it took so long for the jet to respond to increasingly urgent instructions.
The Boeing 757 cargo plane started to dive when its on-board warning system instructed the pilot to drop altitude to avoid a crash, he said. If the Boeing had maintained its course, "there certainly would not have been a crash," he said.
The Boeing 757 cargo plane started to dive when its on-board warning system instructed the pilot to pull down to avoid a crash, said Anton Maag, a Swiss air traffic control official. If the Boeing had maintained its course, "there certainly would not have been a crash," he said.
Hans-Peter Walser, regional police chief in the southwest German city of Ueberlingen, said: "At the moment there are no reasons to believe this has a criminal background."

SEARCH FOR REMAINS
Officials said 12 crew and 57 passengers on board the Tupolev were all Russians. Moscow's Domodedovo airport said about 50 of them were under 18 years old.
Authorities at the Barcelona airport said the wife and two children of a Russian man resident near Barcelona were among those on the charter flight. An employee at the four-star Hotel Estival in the Catalan coastal town of Salou said they were expecting a group of Russian children.
A spokesman said a Britain and a Canadian were piloting the cargo plane, which was operated by DHL Worldwide Express [DHL.UL], which is majority-owned by Deutsche Post .
Rescue workers found 11 bodies and the Tupolev's flight data recorder, vital for investigating the accident. No one on the ground was believed killed.
Helicopters equipped with infra-red cameras clattered overhead as 500 rescue workers combed the area seeking victims and examining wreckage strewn over an area about 40 km long. Some 15 boats criss-crossed the lake.
"We've got body parts here," one official called through on a police radio overheard on the scene.
Officials warned locals that human remains could be strewn across a wide area of the resort region on the Swiss border.
Reporters on the scene saw the charred tail of the Russian plane in a field surrounded by apple trees. About a short walk away from what appeared to be part of the wing.
The airline, based in Russia's oil-rich Muslim Republic of Bashkortostan, was one of many to emerge from the break-up of state airliner Aeroflot after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It relies mainly on a fleet of Tu-154s, one of the most common Russian planes used for medium-range flights.
The two planes were flying at an altitude of 39,370 feet above Ueberlingen on the northwest end of Lake Constance when they collided, officials said. The area was important in early aviation history as the site of the first Zeppelin airship flights more than 100 years ago.
"What I saw looked like a big dark orange light that lasted several seconds and changed in size, first big then small," one eyewitness told German radio.
A spokeswoman for German flight control said one of two reasons would explain such a crash: either ground controllers had entered incorrect data for the flight paths, or one of the two planes had failed to follow its approved flight path.
Another spokesman said there had been no problems contacting the Tupolev while it was in German airspace. A DHL spokesman said there were no problems with their plane before the crash.
"We hope to clear up the cause soon to improve flight safety further," President Johannes Rau told ARD television.
Both planes were under Swiss flight control in Zurich at the time of the accident.
Regional official Siegfried Tann said the falling wreckage damaged houses, which caught fire. A section of forest in the Lake Constance region was also set aflame.
The cargo flight originated in Bahrain and had taken off from Bergamo in Italy en route to Brussels.
Tupolev 154s have crashed several times over the past year. An Iran Air Tours TU-154 crashed in February in Iran killing all 119 aboard. A year ago 136 passengers and nine crew were killed when a Russian Tu-154 plane crashed in Siberia.

Source: Reuters

[ 07-02-2002, 05:49 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Melusine]

This is terrible... can't think of anything to say that doesn't sound trite

I wonder what the blackboxes will uncover... Russian Airline: "I've got you at my 12!" Cargo Plaine: "Ive got you at MY 12!" Russian Airline: "Pull Right!" Cargo Plaine: "your right or mine?"

Apparently one of the two planes repeatedly ignored direct orders to change altitude.

[ 07-02-2002, 09:25 AM: Message edited by: Deathbringer ]

[Azred]

Someone had to want to slam these planes together; there is no other conclusion that makes any sense. If you compare the volume of even the largest aircraft versus the volume of airspace through which airplanes normally fly, the likelihood of these two planes accidentally colliding is extremely remote.

Most unfortunate; most tragic. [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img]

[ 07-02-2002, 10:50 AM: Message edited by: Azred ]

[/)eathKiller]

Originally posted by Azred: Someone had to want to slam these planes together;

so you honestly belive that this was intentional? seems more like a run-of-the-mill accident... i mean they were tow differint types of aircraft run by two differint towers in two diferint languages from differint countries... The chances of it happening were very slim, but possible, sadly enough...

[RudeDawg]

A tragedy, a senseless tragedy.

Just finished reading the AP take on it, and all I can say is that I will pray for the families.

[Azred]

Originally posted by /)eathKiller: quote: Originally posted by Azred: Someone had to want to slam these planes together

so you honestly belive that this was intentional? seems more like a run-of-the-mill accident... i mean they were tow differint types of aircraft run by two differint towers in two diferint languages from differint countries... The chances of it happening were very slim, but possible, sadly enough...[/QUOTE]I don't honestly believe it, no. However, statistically speaking mid-air collisions are extremely rare. I can't say they don't happen and I can't say that this was an accident, but I would more readily believe that it was intentional. Language barriers aside, how can anyone mistake vector and altitude readings?
Until the evidence comes in from the investigation of the accident no one can say what did or did not happen.

However, let us not get sidetracked from the tragedy of those people who lost their lives or the lives of loved ones.