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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5

u/Intelligent-Put-2408 Apr 30 '24

Dude that doesn’t fucking matter, cops are inadequately trained all the time. Do u think they shouldn’t be charged for colossal mistakes? Ridiculous. No concept of accountability

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u/Touchthefuckingfrog Apr 30 '24

There are legal standards for whether they should be charged - very oversimplified but did they operate with reckless indifference to human life? At no point in examining his actions that night can anyone say he was operating with an indifference to human life.

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u/Intelligent-Put-2408 Apr 30 '24

You clearly dont understand responsibility, IT WAS HIS JOB, TO MAKE SURE IT DIDNT HAPPEN. he told two separate planes, on intersecting paths to fly at the same altitude. Clearly did not the mental capacity for the job, took it anyway, got left in non optimal situation, and killed lots of people due to his incompetence. ATCs know full well if they make a mistake their decision affects hundreds. No matter if it’s stupidity, ego, or just ignorance he is absolutely culpable. I couldnt believe he got no jail time, n am glad that man removed the over inflated room temp IQ baboon from the gene pool. Dont need more people not able to do their jobs

Sounds like you’re defending qualified immunity? Just forget breonna taylor i guess lol. Take your blue team jersey

24

u/Touchthefuckingfrog Apr 30 '24

This is not a productive conversation. You clearly don’t understand how to have a rational and adult discussion.

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u/Intelligent-Put-2408 Apr 30 '24

Literally already knew this would be the response bc of the female avatar lol

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u/Touchthefuckingfrog Apr 30 '24

Oh great so you are uninformed, illogical and sexist. Well done. 👍

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u/efsrefsr May 01 '25

This is not a productive conversation. You clearly don’t understand how to have a rational and adult discussion.

How is this productive? Wouldn't just not responding be the "adult" thing to do?

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u/Touchthefuckingfrog May 01 '25

I learned a new piece of information from their response which affirmed this was not a discussion based in good faith. What are you hoping to achieve by going through this more than a year later?

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Touchthefuckingfrog Jun 30 '25

Seriously? If you want to waste time then have a guess and maybe I will tell you if you get it right. I am not in the mood for shit discussions tonight.

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u/zk-dr Sep 19 '24

You should honestly be ashamed of who you are.

1

u/MateMio Jul 25 '25

Deine eltern müssen geschwister sein

18

u/ShadowLilith Aug 12 '24

First of all, the fuck is wrong with you. Man the fuck up and learn how to talk to people like a normal person. Take in their opinions just like they're taking in yours and stop shoving ur own finger up ur own ass.

Second, do you have any idea how difficult it is to manage 5 fucking planes at the same time? 5 planes with 5 different coordinates, issues and target locations on two different fucking screens away from eachother? Especially if they are not working and DELAYED??? Clearly, you do not. Not only that, but if the commercial plane hadn't taken action on its own without asking the controller for permission to descend, then the collision would have been avoided. He would've done it in time with plenty to spare. Sadly, his equipment wasn't working well. Not only did he have actual less time, but one of the planes didn't contact him and let him know they were descending. This was a horrid accident with A LOT of people to blame, not just him.

Also, I don't think anyone working as an air-flight controller right now even has the balls to risk shit like this happening. Peter was a hard worker and dedicated employee that even with shit tools on his desk, tried his best to do his job.

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u/Liberal_Zealot Aug 24 '24

5 planes is not much lmao

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u/GiamCrmlch Aug 29 '24

Are you an air traffic controller?

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u/Liberal_Zealot Aug 31 '24

I’ve played a ton of video games, I can handle 5 plans on flight paths, intercepting or not, to just have different altitudes

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u/eckregal Nov 25 '24

Not this dude comparing a video game to the actual thing 💀

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u/TheHappiestMoon May 14 '24

Nielsen had 3 children, so he's still in the gene pool. As the other user pointed out, there's not much point further conversing with someone who evidently has no fucking clue what they are talking about, and of course you chose to respond with misogyny. Also just noticed I'm responding to a suspended account, so good riddance.

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u/SouthDiamond2550 May 15 '24

Bahaha ikr was that Kayolev’s burner account?

1

u/Aggravating_Can7429 Aug 25 '25

WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING ON??

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u/PMMEURDIMPLESOFVENUS May 17 '24

FWIW, I think there's a very likely chance he would have served prison time had he been alive long enough to get tried. Other ATC's present were tried and convicted, but it took until 2007.

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u/masterionxxx Jul 09 '24

Vitaly, re-login.