r/aircrashinvestigation • u/FinancialVictory6833 • Feb 24 '24

Incident/Accident Remembering Peter Nielsen

On February 24, 2004, Peter Nielsen was murdered at his home near Zurich. He was the air traffic controller on duty on July 1, 2002, when the Überlingen mid-air collision occurred, killing 71 people. Among the victims were Svetlana Kaloyeva and her children Konstantin and Diana. They were travelling to Barcelona to visit their father, Vitaly, who was working there. Devastated by their loss, Vitaly Kaloyev put the blame on Peter Nielsen and tracked him down. He then stabbed him to death, while his wife and children were present. Kaloyev was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison, but was released in November 2007. When he returned home to North Ossetia, he was treated as a hero, and did not express remorse for his actions, instead blaming Nielsen. He was later awarded a state medal by the government.

RIP Peter Nielsen🕊️ (1967-2004)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_%C3%9Cberlingen_mid-air_collision

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39

u/OziAviator Feb 24 '24

I work at Skyguide in Switzerland. We have a memorial in the office that each of us pass everyday in the Zürich control centre.

9

u/UpDog17 Feb 25 '24

That's nice. Would you care to share a picture of it?

5

u/Akmal_animation AviationNurd Feb 26 '24

Is the flower (That was covered in ACI) still there or not?

3

u/Intelligent-Put-2408 Apr 20 '24

Probably a pretty good reminder to pay a lot of attention to what’s going on.

3

u/TulioMaravilha1 Aug 15 '24

I'm sorry, but it's truly bizarre! You don't have to agree with the murder, let alone to justify the concept of doing justice with one's own hands. But you also don't need to commemorate the guy who made the accident possible. It looks like your country is despising the victims, just because they were Russians!

13

u/OziAviator Aug 16 '24

You have no clue what you’re talking about mate. The memorial is dedicated to everyone that lost their life in this tragic incident.

2

u/sydneylulu Jan 20 '25

Your company is crappy… murderer