How schoolchildren fell aboard this particular aircraft

Tomas Avenarius, 03 July 2002

The long list begins with the name of Ildar Asilgujina, the birth of 1988, then Lena Asilova follows, whose birth certificate is 1992. And completes this terrible list, in which 50 names, Ruslan Yusupov, born in 1982. Most Tu-154 passengers were children, in any case, young people. Among the 52 people who went on vacation, there was not one who would be older than 18 years old, and who could be called to some extent adults. Half of the dead were children of officials of the government apparatus from the rich in oil of the Muslim Republic in the Urals. Just in case, they all took part, in a kind, of the school Olympiad in various subjects, carried out with the support of UNESCO, and became its winners. They arrived from all corners of Bashkiria to take part in the festival for winners in Barcelona.

“If they had not been late for the plane in Moscow, they would be alive now,” said the mother of one of the victims of the television correspondent at the Airport of the capital of Bashkiria Ufa. “If we knew about this in advance, said.” The scenes at the airport were deeply shocked: the crying mothers, fathers and relatives, leaning over large sheets with lists of passengers, doctors, psychologists who are trying to console those who can no longer console. The fact that the children were aboard an unhappy aircraft was a case: for some reason, the group, along with five people accompanied by it, was delivered to the wrong airport. Not to the Sheremetyevo International Airport, but to Domodedovo. From here, too, sometimes there are foreign flights. Due to the fact that the Sunday flight of Bashkir Airlines in Barcelona was missed, the group remained in Moscow in anticipation of the next flight.

Offended physiognomy

Responsible persons in Russia indignantly rejected accusations from the Swiss air traffic controllers until the afternoon of Monday became clear the entire scale of the disaster, and a terrible suspicion of flagrant mistakes in the actions did not fall on Russian pilots. And, as often happens in Russia, it was not entirely clear whether it was sincerely indignant from responsible persons, or an attempt to disown in a tough form and with offended mines from the incredible. “It is difficult to understand the reasons for the disaster,” said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The unlucky plane, according to him, was built seven years ago, it is almost new and equipped with all modern security systems. The crew and engines satisfied all the requirements of the European Union.

The Ministry of Transport added: the pilot Alexander Gross has a raid for more than 4,000 hours, worked abroad for a long time, and he spoke English perfectly. There were no doubts about the first -class pilot. The head of the Bashkir Airlines Andrei Stepanyuk said: "Western media argue that the pilot did not know the English language. This is not true. Among all our crews, this was the most experienced." Meanwhile, the one who will be more attentive to what was said, for example, to the words of the head of civil aviation of Russia, may have some doubts about his own ideas about what happened: “It is clear that we are talking about the human factor,” says Alexander Nerrako, “but something like this cannot happen just like that. This, apparently, contributed to a number of factors that were brought from the Earth.” Another responsible person said in the cell: "The reasons for this disaster must be sought in the sky of Germany."

Abbreviated translation: Tow Vladimir, inosmi.ru
Published on the website inosmi.ru: 03 July 2002, 11:00
Original publication: der zufall f? Hrte regie bei der trag? Die

The cause of the plane crash is the case ("SueDdeutsche Zeitung", Germany)