Criminal investigation seeks answers in air collision
UEBERLINGEN, Germany (AP) =97 Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal=20
investigation Thursday into the collision of two airliners as grieving=20
families of dozens of children killed in the crash piled flowers around the=
=20
aircraft wreckage. Meanwhile, initial results of a German-led inquiry into=
=20
the crash =97 which killed 71 people, 45 of them Russian children headed for=
=20
an end-of-school beach vacation =97 found a Russian pilot had been given=
just=20
44 seconds warning before slamming into an oncoming cargo plane. The=20
investigations turned fresh attention on Swiss air traffic control, which=20
took charge of the planes shortly before the crash.
Swiss prosecutors said their investigation was opened amid suspicions of=20
negligent homicide. The aim is to establish whether any actions by Swiss=20
air traffic control could prompt criminal charges, said Christoph Naef, a=20
spokesman for Zurich prosecutors.
Already, the Swiss have said there was only one controller in the Zurich=20
tower at the time and there should have been two because a crash avoidance=
=20
system was out of service for maintenance. The second controller had taken=
=20
a break. Chief German investigator Peter Schlegel said analysis of radio=20
transmissions showed the Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 was given six seconds=20
less than the 50-second warning Swiss and German officials had previously=20
reported. That is nearly a minute less than the Swiss had claimed shortly=20
after the crash.
The Russian-made Tupolev began to dive just 14 seconds after the initial=20
warning and 30 seconds before the crash. The Russian plane was responding=20
to a second Swiss warning. "The Tupolev should have begun descending at the=
=20
latest 1{ minutes before the crossing point," Schlegel said, at a news=20
conference in the north central German city of Braunschweig.
But he said it was too early to determine blame for the collision with a=20
Boeing 757 DHL International delivery service jet just before midnight=20
Monday. Both pilots on that plane died. Schlegel denied a Russian news=20
report that experts decoding the planes' flight data and cockpit voice=20
recorders found the Russian pilot asked to change course 1{ minutes before=
=20
the collision.
The children =97 all gifted students from Ufa, an industrial city in=20
Bashkortostan region in the southern Ural Mountains =97 were heading to=
Spain=20
as a reward for getting top grades.
On Thursday, parents and other relatives of the young Russians hugged,=20
cried, piled flowers and placed wreaths at the wreckage in a solemn=20
farewell. Some of the 150 family members were so overcome with grief they=20
needed medical treatment, officials said. Women leaned on one another in=20
the sun as they walked from a golden barley field where the jet's tail=20
section lay askew in the gently rolling hills leading down to Lake=20
Constance. The Swiss Alps towered in the background. An Orthodox priest and=
=20
a Muslim cleric offered prayers, as the relatives left seven large flower=20
wreaths. German officials had asked the parents for photographs and other=20
aids to help in the "extraordinarily difficult identification" of their=20
children. The bodies were in such terrible condition relatives should not=20
have to identify them, said Baden-Wuerttemberg state Interior Minister=20
Thomas Schaeuble.
Officials said they had recovered 69 by the time the search was called off=
=20
for the night. The search was to continue Friday.
Many questions remained, including whether both planes' onboard=20
collision-warning systems were functioning. "We don't know whether it was=20
human error, or technical error, or whether there was a chain of=20
unfortunate circumstances," German Transport Minister Kurt Bodewig said.
Schlegel said the Zurich control tower received notification 14 seconds=20
before the impact that one plane's collision-warning system was=20
recommending it descend. Investigators believe it was the Boeing, which=20
then began to dive =97 meaning that both planes were taking the same evasive=
=20
action at the same time, thus continuing on their collision course. "That=20
clearly worsened the situation and it will be a major issue in the=20
investigation," Schlegel said. Officials said the Russian plane also had a=
=20
collision avoidance system, but it was unclear whether it was working at=20
the time of the crash. Though several experts have said Europe's fragmented=
=20
air traffic control system was not to blame for the collision, the crash=20
revived calls for a single, Europe-wide system. "The small-state thinking=20
must be replaced by a unified system," Bodewig said. Swiss authorities had=
=20
said shortly after the tragedy that their controllers gave the Russian=20
pilot 90 seconds warning, but quickly scaled that back to 50 seconds to=20
match subsequent German reports. The Swiss had also initially claimed the=20
Russian pilot had not responded until a third warning from the tower.
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