RE: Airspace capacity reduced after crash

From BBC News Online

German investigators have revealed that the pilots of the Russian plane involved in last week’s mid-air collision with a cargo plane which killed 71 people received contradictory instructions seconds before the crash.

They said voice recorders recovered from both aircraft showed Swiss air traffic controllers told the Russian pilots to descend, while the on-board warning system instructed them to climb.

All 69 people – including 45 schoolchildren – aboard the Russian Tu-154, and two crew members on the Boeing 757 were killed when the two aircraft collided at 35,000 feet (10,500 metres) over the German-Swiss border.

The revelation came as at least 1,000 people in the Russian city of Ufa attended an emotional service in memory of their dead.

The ceremony followed the early morning arrival of a plane carrying the bodies of 33 of the 71 people who perished when a Russian Tupolev crashed into a Boeing cargo jet last Monday night.

Funerals

The city of Ufa, in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, lost 45 children in the crash.

On Monday, thousands of people gathered in the central square to pay their last respects to 33 of the victims.

Mourners crowded around wooden coffins bedecked with flowers, many clutching photographs of their loved ones who had lost their lives.

At the memorial service, Orthodox priests and Muslim clergymen offered prayers for the dead.

Then the coffins were taken by bus to the local cemetery and laid to rest.

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says the tragedy has shocked Ufa and the country.

There is growing anger as the investigation continues, he says, with many people already pointing the finger of blame at air traffic controllers in Switzerland.

Conflicting orders

According to German authorities, cockpit warning systems told the Tu-154 to climb and the cargo jet to descend, just 45 seconds before the collision.

But voice recorders reveal that one second later, Zurich air traffic controllers told the Russian pilots to descend.

The Russian crew did not respond, so the Zurich control tower repeated the order 14 seconds later, investigators say.

The Russian plane responded and the two aircraft collided 30 seconds later.

Although the aircraft were flying over Germany at the time, they were under the control of the Swiss air traffic control body, Skyguide.

Investigations are being carried out by both Swiss and German authorities.

The Swiss inquiry is looking into the possibility of homicide through negligence, which carries a three-year jail term for anyone found guilty.

Irregularities

Earlier, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported that German air traffic controllers had tried to warn Skyguide that the planes were on a collision course.

But all attempts reportedly failed as the telephone network at Skyguide was down at the time for maintenance.

While Skyguide had initially pointed the finger at the Russian pilot’s failure to respond promptly to the air controller’s warning, it has been revealed that there were several other irregularities at the control centre on the night in question.

In addition to work apparently being carried out on the telephone network, the centre’s collision warning system was down for maintenance and only one controller was on duty at the time of the crash.

The controller, who warned the Russian pilot to change course just 44 seconds before the collision, has been described as overburdened by a German team investigating the crash.