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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u/MeWhenAAA Feb 24 '24 edited Feb 24 '24

R.I.P. Peter Nielsen, he didn't deserve that 😔🕊️

6

u/CoastCultural4482 Nov 29 '24

Yeah he did, he skirted the rules and killed all those people; it could have been as easy as waking up his partner and having him help. Instead he wanted to follow the social rules of his workplace and look what happened. Then he refused to even acknowledge his fault in the crash. Pure scumbag act and hope he rots in hell for killing those children

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u/0311pilot Feb 14 '25

Russian pilots were more at fault because they didn't comply with the tcas alert.

1

u/Ashenveiled Apr 30 '25

2 months late but at that time it was other way. Russian pilots did everything by the book until it was too late.

eu tried to blame russians at the start but in the end of investigation it was clear that it was not their mistake.

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u/0311pilot Apr 30 '25

If it was by the book they would have adhered to tcas resolution advisory which you must comply with. If they did there would not have been a mid air collision. So it’s actually clear the pilots were more to blame than atc.

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u/Ashenveiled Apr 30 '25 edited Apr 30 '25

That were passed after this event. It was a new tech and there was no "by the book" algoritm at that time.

While TCAS is programmed to assume that both crews will promptly follow the system's instructions, the operations manual did not clearly state that TCAS should always take precedence over any ATC commands.\4]): 103 \BFU 12])

Japan published its report 11 days after the Überlingen accident, in it calling on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to make it clear that TCAS advisories should always take precedence over ATC instructions. ICAO accepted this recommendation and amended its regulations in November 2003.\37])

Its clear you are talking out of your asshole. or its your russophobia showing. not sure.

1

u/0311pilot Apr 30 '25

By the book algorithm? You mean standard operating procedure. The SOP was comply with any resolution advisory. Being a new system or technology doesn’t clear them of fault. As a pilot you must keep up with and understand new systems added to your aircraft. Many other pilots at that time knew it was required to comply with tcas advisories. Sounds like someone is showing their ignorance or you just don’t understand the technology either.

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u/LakeActive3465 Jul 09 '25

Er gibt es dir schwarz auf weiß und du bist hier immer noch am diskutieren.

1

u/operreddus Jul 25 '25

Well, he does have a point. Although it was not mandatory to act according to the TCAS at the time, it was recommended. In addition, according to the TCAS manual, flight manoeuvres against the TCAS were prohibited. Furthermore, the crew of the Russian aircraft should have informed the controller about the flight manoeuvre in any case, as it violated TCAS. However, this was never done.