From Russia with a blood feud Vsevolod Vosledov vosledov@smi.ru February 27 14:26 MCK

The identity of the suspect in the murder of former Skyguide air traffic controller Peter Nielsen has become known. Although Swiss police have not named the suspect, it is known that his entire family - his wife, daughter and son - died in the crash over Lake Constance. One of the two men who lost their entire family is at home in Ufa. The second is a native of North Ossetia, Vitaly Kaloev. Apparently, it was he who was arrested in Switzerland.

36-year-old Dane Peter Nielsen was stabbed to death on Tuesday evening on the balcony of his house in Kloten. As Kommersant writes, according to the testimony of Mr. Nielsen’s widow, an unknown man came to them, looking like a “native from Eastern Europe” who spoke broken German. He approached the former dispatcher and, after a short conversation, stabbed him several times in front of his wife and three children. The criminal fled the scene, but a day later the police detained him in a shelter nearby. The weapon of the crime was also discovered - a folding knife with a blade 14 centimeters long.

At a press conference, the chief of the criminal police of the canton of Zurich announced that the quick arrest was made possible thanks to the cooperation of “international investigative authorities and the Kloten police.” It was established that the suspect was in Switzerland for the first time, and he arrived on February 18. According to District Attorney Pascal Gossner , who is leading the investigation, the suspect has not yet pleaded guilty and his alibi is only being verified, but various pieces of evidence point specifically to him. The man, for example, was identified by a neighbor, to whom the day before he had shown a piece of paper with Nielsen’s name and asked how to find him. The prosecutor also referred to footage taken during a mourning ceremony on the occasion of the anniversary of the disaster last summer in Überlingen. As Mr. Gossner put it, the prisoner stood out in the crowd with “conspicuous rage.” At the same time, the prosecutor added that the arrested man never recovered from the loss of his family. “The murder was most likely an act of revenge,” Mr. Gossner said. However, he did not disclose the name or nationality of the suspect, citing the interests of the investigation.

Nevertheless, calculating it turned out to be not so difficult. The list of victims includes only two people who lost their wife, son and daughter in the disaster. This is an employee of the Ufa construction company Vladimir Savchuk and a native of North Ossetia, resident of Vladikavkaz, architect and builder Vitaly Kaloev, forty-six years old. Yesterday Kommersant got through to Vitaly Savchuk (his wife Irina, daughter Veronica and son Vladislav died), and he said that recently he not only had not traveled abroad, but had not left Ufa at all. “I am not a supporter of murder,” said Mr. Savchuk. “After all, murder means ‘no end in sight,’ and now it turns out that the main witness, who could tell the details of the incident at the trial, the details of the operation of the entire Skyguide system, has been eliminated. This is not good for the case.”

But with Vitaly Kaloev, everything turned out to be not so simple. His family ended up on a plane carrying Bashkir children that crashed over Germany by tragic accident. His wife Svetlana Kaloeva , an economist, deputy director for finance of the Daryal brewing plant, with ten-year-old Kostya and four-year-old Diana, was supposed to fly from Vladikavkaz to her husband in Spain, where he was on a business trip. But she did not have time to complete all the travel documents and was forced to look for last-minute tickets for the next flights. Three hours before departure, the dispatcher at the airport offered her a Bashkir flight, which turned out to have just three empty seats.

On the day of the disaster, Vitaly was waiting for his family at Barcelona airport. Having learned about the tragedy, he immediately flew to Zurich, and from there to the scene of the disaster in Uberlingen, Germany. “I spent ten days searching for the remains of my dear children and wife,” he wrote on a website dedicated to the memory of the victims of the disaster. “My life stopped on this tragic date of 07/01/2002. I have only memories left to live. The only consolation is daily visits to their graves in the cemetery in Vladikavkaz, where they are buried.”

As Vremya Novostey writes, the Russian Foreign Ministry has already sent an official request to Switzerland about the citizenship of the detainee, and if he turns out to be Russian, the embassy is ready to provide him with the necessary assistance. There is a fear that if the police version is confirmed and the detainee is found guilty of Nielsen’s murder, then this crime will overshadow both the plane crash itself and the investigation into who is actually to blame for the deaths of dozens of people. The killer, of course, will answer for his actions and serve his sentence. However, those who still have not found out the cause of the disaster must take their share of the blame for the death of the dispatcher. The case is being handled not by the Swiss, but by the German authorities, since the collision took place over its territory. And although more than a year and a half have passed, the relatives of the victims still have not received an answer to who killed their families. The leisurely Germans are unable to reach a verdict, although, according to negotiations, it was from the Skyguide dispatcher that the Russian pilots received incorrect indications of the Boeing's position.

However, no one has yet officially named the killed dispatcher as the culprit of the collision. Skyguide suspended him from work just in case, but no other sanctions were applied to him before the verdict; moreover, he was provided with psychological assistance and support. Nevertheless, the anger of his relatives could well have turned on him, since after deciphering the Tu-154 black boxes and publishing the conversations, it became clear that Nielsen had made obvious mistakes. But it is also possible that the commission will ultimately lay the blame not on Nielsen, but, for example, on poor labor organization in a Swiss company. Then it turns out that the dispatcher paid with his life, not least because of the slowness of the German side.

Izvestia managed to contact the relatives of Vitaly Kaloyev. “Vitaly became very withdrawn after the tragedy, he didn’t share his plans with anyone, neither with me nor with Yura,” shared Margarita Kaloyeva , wife of Yuri, Vitaly Kaloyev’s older brother. “He was experiencing everything within himself, and for almost two years now he has been in such a state that I would not be surprised if he behaves inappropriately.” Let anyone put themselves in his place: in some minutes they will lose their entire family. We, his loved ones, cannot wake up from this ourselves. I wouldn't even discuss his inappropriate behavior. I don't know how any other person would have behaved in his place. But I think it’s impossible to say unequivocally that it was he who was detained in Switzerland.”

As the newspaper writes, Vitaly Kaloev behaved inappropriately during a memorial ceremony on the anniversary of the tragedy. “After laying wreaths at the relatives, the head of the SkyGuide company , Allen Rosier , came out with words of apology,” says an Izvestia source close to the company. - Kaloev immediately took him aside and began asking him uncomfortable questions about who was to blame for this disaster. Rossier, according to eyewitnesses, experienced a terrible fear of him. At the end of the conversation, Rossier found the strength to extend his hand to him, but Vitaly Kaloev pointedly refused to shake it. It was Kaloev who was absolutely not interested in the issues of financial compensation, which other relatives often talked about. He was only interested in the dispatcher.

According to company employees, the next day, Vitaly Kaloev, during a meeting in the office with the company’s management, asked the question “Is the dispatcher to blame for what happened?” several times, and also persistently tried to find out his name and sought a meeting with him. When Kaloev once again did not receive a direct answer as to who was to blame for the disaster, he said: “The dispatcher is a scoundrel, and in the Caucasus it’s customary for us to talk to scoundrels in our own way.” And he left the office. SkyGuide representatives reminded police officers investigating the murder of Peter Nielsen about this on Wednesday.