Germany's verdict

A local court found the country guilty in the crash of the Bashkir Airlines plane.

Yesterday, the Baden-Württemberg Regional Court in the city of Constance made a decision against Germany on the claim of the Bashkir Airlines airline. We are talking about the trial in the case of a collision on July 1, 2002 in the airspace over Germany of a Bashkir plane and a cargo airliner of the courier mail company DHL. As a result, 71 people died, mostly children flying from Ufa on vacation to Spain.

German experts who investigated the circumstances of the crash came to the conclusion that the entire burden of blame falls on the Swiss flight safety service Skyguide. It was the mistakes in the actions of its employees that led to the tragedy. The court in Constanta fully agreed with this conclusion. However, presiding judge Wilhelm Müller went further in his reasoning. The Swiss company, he reasoned, was taking part in ensuring flight safety over southern Germany on behalf of the country's federal government. Therefore, from the point of view of the judge's legal logic, Germany should be jointly responsible for the damage that occurred over its territory. At the same time, Germany does not have the right to shift claims for damages to the Swiss service Skyguide - after all, in this case there was no legal transfer of state powers.

Based on yesterday's court decision, it is not yet possible to determine how much compensation Germany will have to pay to the relatives and friends of the victims, as well as to Bashkir Airlines, which is seeking compensation for the lost Tu-154. Judge Müller himself expressed his conviction that a cassation appeal would be filed against this decision to a higher authority. Experts believe that the federal authorities, if necessary, will be ready to seek the overturning of the court decision in Constanta all the way to the Federal Court of Justice.

The court in Konstanz also issued a special ruling that the German federal government in this case violated the German constitution. The constitution stipulates that air control is a “sovereign task” that “cannot be delegated.” Therefore, Germany must be “fully” responsible for all problems and violations that occur in Skyguide. Previously, German lawyers had opposed this interpretation of the basic law. They argued that Skyguide itself should bear independent responsibility, because all actions in this case were carried out on the basis of agreements between the German flight service in Karlsruhe and Skyguide. For judges, such oral agreements turned out to be an insufficient argument.

The judges in Constance also found unconvincing the statement of the German government authorities that the Bashkir pilots allegedly made a mistake. The court determined that the pilots were in a “difficult situation” and therefore were not to blame.

Yuri Shpakov, Berlin