On April 7, Elliott Lester’s drama “Consequences” will be released on wide screens in Russia and Belarus. The plot is based on - true story Russian Vitaly Kaloev, who lost his entire family in a plane crash over Lake Constance in 2002. As “SV” Kaloev said, he is outraged that the plot of the film deviates greatly from the truth

THE FLIGHT THAT FELL FROM THE SKY

Fifteen years ago, a tragedy in the skies of Germany shocked the world. Due to an error by Swiss air traffic controllers, two planes collided - a passenger Tu-154, flying on a charter flight from Moscow to Barcelona, ​​and a cargo Boeing-757.

71 people died, including 52 children. The children were heading to Spain on vacation. The vouchers were presented by the UNESCO Committee of Bashkiria as an incentive for excellent studies.

By tragic accident, there was a family from Vladikavkaz on the plane - Svetlana Kaloyeva with ten-year-old Kostya and four-year-old Diana. The woman flew to her husband in Spain, where he worked as a contract architect.

Two years later, Kaloev killed Peter Nielsen, the dispatcher on duty who controlled the path of a passenger airliner on that fateful night and made a mistake. The Russian served several years in a Swiss prison for murder.

HOW AN OSSETIAN BECAME AN AMERICAN

The tragic story “hooked” Hollywood. The famous producer Darren Aronofsky, famous for the films “Noah”, “Requiem for a Dream” and “Black Swan”, decided to make a separate film. The “Terminator” and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger was invited to play the role of Vitaly Kaloyev.

The film is not devoid of artistic invention. The names of the characters and the location of events have been changed. The main character Roman Melnik lives in New York. The plane flies from Samara and crashes on approach to the American state. In a plane crash main character loses his wife and pregnant daughter.

The SV correspondent got through to Vitaly Kaloev.

- Vitaly Konstantinovich, how did you feel about the idea of ​​making a movie based on the story of your life?

I found out about two years ago from the media. They took it off and took it off. What we don’t want is speculation on the tragedy. A movie like this could be made about any child who was on that plane.

- Did the creators contact you for permission?

In 2015, representatives Hollywood film studios they called asking if I was against filming a film about the tragedy over Lake Constance. I said I don't mind the film itself. He will be able to perpetuate the memory of my relatives. But directly during the filming of the film, none of the creators of this picture contacted me or consulted me.

- How do you like Schwarzenegger?

This actor's roles are mostly positive. I don't care how he played me. He didn’t ask how I felt or why everything turned out this way.

- Are you going to watch a movie?

Not sure yet. I don't go to cinemas at all. I know that the storyline of the film has been greatly changed. Honestly, this is infuriating. The whole world will see the situation completely different from what it really was. It's not fair.

-Have you thought about writing a book?

Myself? No. But I heard that on April 17 there will be a presentation of Ksenia Kaspari’s book “Clashes”, in which the journalist will try to remember the tragic events of 2002 and its consequences.

Recently Vitaly Kaloev celebrated his sixtieth birthday and retired. He was awarded the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia.” For eight years he worked as Deputy Minister of Construction of North Ossetia. He was invited to this post shortly after his early release from a Swiss prison.

Help "SV"

The collision over Lake Constance occurred on July 1, 2002. The Bashkir Airlines Tu-154M airliner, operating flight BTC 2937 on the Moscow-Barcelona route, collided in the air with a DHL Boeing 757-200PF cargo plane. The collision occurred near the small town of Uberlingen near Lake Constance (Germany). Everyone on board both died.

On February 24, 2004, air traffic controller Peter Nielsen, through whose mistake the disaster occurred, was killed on the threshold of his home. 46-year-old Vitaly Kaloev was arrested on suspicion of murder. According to Kaloev's testimony, he gave Nielsen photographs of the children and wanted the dispatcher to apologize to him for his mistake. Nielsen hit Kaloev on the arm. Then, according to Kaloev, he does not remember what happened. On October 26, 2005, the court found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to eight years in prison. As a result, after the case was reviewed, Kaloev spent two years in a Swiss prison and returned to Russia.

COMMON TRAGEDY

Belarusians died over Lake Constance

On board the plane was the Shislovsky family from Brest. A husband, wife and two daughters were going on vacation to Spain. On the way to Moscow, from where they were supposed to fly to Barcelona, ​​they had an accident: the train on which four members of this family were traveling collided with a car. As a result, the Shislovskys missed their scheduled plane and flew on the ill-fated Tu-154 of Bashkir Airlines.

The family is buried in the central alley of the Brest cemetery “Ploska”.

Vitaly Kaloev, a suspect in the murder of an air traffic controller for the Swiss company Skyguide, due to whose mistake two planes collided over Lake Constance, gave his first interview. Now the Russian is awaiting trial. Kaloev does not deny his guilt, but says that he does not remember how he committed the crime while in a state of passion. In a telephone interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, he spoke about what happened on the day when air traffic controller Peter Nielsen was killed.

“I knocked. Nielsen came out. I first motioned for him to invite me into the house. But he slammed the door. I called again and told him: “Ikh bin Russland” (“I am Russia”). I remember these words from school . He remained silent. I took out photographs that showed the bodies of my children. I wanted him to look at them. But he pushed my hand away and sharply gestured for me to get out... Like a dog: get out. Well, I said nothing. You see, I was offended. Even my eyes filled with tears. I extended my hand with the photographs to him for the second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped me on the hand... The photographs flew... And away we go ... Probably,” said Vitaly Kaloev, adding that he does not remember how he left the air traffic controller’s house.

He claims that he went to the air traffic controller's house in order to force him to apologize for his tragic mistake: “I decided to make him repent. I wanted to show him photographs of my murdered family, and then go with him to Skyguide and call television so that they - Nielsen and Rossier (the head of the company) - apologize to me in front of the camera. This desire of mine was no secret to anyone."

The Russian says that he repeatedly asked the director of the Swiss company to arrange a meeting with Nielsen, but he refused: “Yes, in 2003 I asked Skyguide to show me Nielsen, and they hid him. And then I received a fax letter. Skyguide asked, so that I renounce my dead family: received compensation and signed papers according to which I agreed so that the company would no longer be persecuted. I was outraged by this. I called them and said that I would like to meet with Nielsen and discuss these issues. He first agreed, but then he refused."

Kaloev admits that he does not regret the death of the dispatcher: “How should I feel sorry for him? You see, it didn’t make me feel any better that he died. My children didn’t return...” While in prison, he is unable to speak Russian, but truly suffers only because he cannot visit the graves of his loved ones.

The suspect in the murder, a native of North Ossetia, says that he understands better than anyone else what it is like now for the relatives of the victims of the Beslan tragedy: “No one understands the Beslanites better than me. I don’t know how they can continue to live.” “I watched it on TV and sent a telegram of condolences to the president of North Ossetia... And I wrote about what bastards the Swiss are, they told me: “Serves you right!” And the doctor here said: “You should feel better. Because there are already a lot of people like you..." says Kaloev.

The Russian said that, like many residents of Beslan, he still sees no point in further life: “For now, my plans are to live to see the trial. But I’m not afraid of it. And I don’t recognize it. That’s what I told them: the Swiss court is for means nothing to me. For me, the judgment of my children is higher. If they could, they would say that I really loved them, that I did not leave them, did not allow them to disappear without a trace."

In Germany, it happened on July 2, 2002 - due to an error by the dispatcher and the crew of a Russian plane, a cargo Boeing 757 and a Tu-154 of Bashkir Airlines collided. There were 69 people on board the latter. All of them, including Kaloev’s wife, son and daughter, died.

Numerous violations of safety rules committed by Skyguide, after two years, nevertheless forced the Swiss. Last summer, after Nielsen’s death, they offered to pay $150 thousand for each victim, but this move only angered the relatives.

The fate of Vitaly Kaloev was tragic. He lost his entire family in a plane crash. His wife and two children died. They flew by plane to Spain, where Vitaly Kaloev was working at that time. The architect himself blamed the Swiss dispatcher for the incident, whom he then killed. The story happened 16 years ago, and now Vitaly got married for the second time.

Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time: about the wedding

Vitaly Kaloev did not talk about his wife, but he did not hide anything. His new chosen one’s name is Irina, and the wedding took place according to the Ossetian rite. Kaloev explained his choice not to go to the registry office by saying that at the registry office you only receive a piece of paper. She means nothing to him. And so relatives come, everyone knows. Vitaly said that he wanted to start a family and asked Irina for her consent.

Even before the ceremony itself, it is necessary to collect the bride price. And the Ossetian wedding itself takes place both in the house of the bride and in the house of the groom. Usually this is a mass celebration with the participation of more than 200 people, acquaintances, friends and relatives. At such a celebration, fun always reigns; any uninvited neighbor or acquaintance can come to it, and they have no right to refuse him. At a celebration you can always see a large table with food and sweets. It has also become a tradition to have a wild boar on festive table. But the most important component remains the three pies, which symbolize water, sun and sky.

Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time: a film is being made about Vitaly Kaloev

A film based on the events of that distant 2002 has already been released. It was called “Consequences” and was released in 2017. But he disappointed Vitaly Kaloev. There are too many inconsistencies and untruths. The film turned out to be absolutely uninteresting for Vitaly, and a coincidence of circumstances made the tragedy to blame.

Now, in the new film “Unforgiven,” they are going to show the story more realistically and listen to the hero’s comments. Let us remind you that he now lives in North Ossetia; he was released from prison in 2007, early. As he says, the pain from the tragedy has not gone away. It has only become duller and is not expressed so clearly. In order to reliably recreate the events shown in the film, the director personally met with Vitaly. And the main character was played by Dmitry Nagiyev.

Vitaly Kaloev married a second time: more about the tragedy and fate

Two planes crashed over Lake Constance. In 2004, Kaloev killed Skyguide airline dispatcher Peter Nielsen, considering him to be responsible for the tragedy. He himself confessed to the crime and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Vitaly himself was born on January 15, 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz).

And in 1991 he got married. Then his family died in a plane crash. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for a year, where his condition was never analyzed. By the way, the common people were for Vitaly’s rightness. And his words at the present time prove that he is in full mental health. In 2014, he married for the second time, but has no children. The architect recently celebrated his anniversary; he turned 60 years old. On this day he received the award “For the Glory of Ossetia”. When asked why he killed the dispatcher, Vitaly replies that his children and grandchildren live happily, and I will no longer have grandchildren or children.

I just demanded that the people from the airline apologize to the relatives of the victims, as is humanly possible, but they constantly got out of it...

“West is West, East is East, and they will never come together,” wrote Kipling. But in the tiny Swiss town of Kloten, not far from Zurich, not just two civilizations came together, but two completely different mentalities that spoke completely different languages.

Russian Vitaly Kaloyev did not need any compensation or court decisions, he just wanted to finally hear a human apology from those who - albeit unwittingly - destroyed his family. Swiss Peter Nielsen thought only about the legal consequences. "An apology presupposes an admission of guilt, and this can also lead to unwanted court decisions“That’s what the lawyers told them.

Therefore, Nielsen did not let Kaloyev onto the threshold of his house.

I rang the doorbell again and told him: “Ich bin Russland,” said Kaloev. - I remember these words from school. He said nothing. I took out photographs that showed the bodies of my children. I wanted him to look at them. But he pushed my hand away and sharply gestured for me to get out... Like a dog: get out. Well, I said nothing, I was offended. Even my eyes filled with tears. I extended my hand to him with the photographs for the second time and said in Spanish: “Look!” He slapped me on the hand - the pictures flew to the ground... My eyes went dark. It even seemed to me that my children were turned over in their coffins, thrown out of them, that is, from the coffins...

Further events were reconstructed by the investigation. Not remembering himself with anger, Kaloev grabbed a Wenger folding Swiss knife from his pocket - the most ordinary folding knife that can be bought in any store. The blade is only 10 centimeters long.

With this knife, he rushed at Peter and began to chop up his enemy, striking anywhere: in the chest, in the face, in the mouth twisted with a grin...

Nielsen tried to resist, but in vain - in just a minute, Kaloev inflicted 17 stab wounds on the victim. Nine blows hit the chest - the knife pierced the lungs and heart. Several blows landed in the face - the mouth was cut on both sides almost from ear to ear, two teeth were knocked out. Kaloev also cut his victim’s femoral artery and veins...

Hearing Nielsen's screams, his wife Mette jumped out onto the terrace and saw a terrible picture: her husband was lying in a pool of blood, and a scary black-bearded man was standing over him with a knife in his hand. She rushed to her neighbors screaming for help.

But Vitaly Kaloev, not paying any attention to the screams, simply turned around and slowly walked away on foot - as if on autopilot, he walked to the Welcome Inn hotel, where he stayed when he arrived in Kloten. Somewhere halfway there, he remembered the bloody knife that he was still clutching in his hand. Kaloyev threw the knife into some ditch - the police then dug through half the city, trying to find the murder weapon. Unnoticed by anyone - at six o'clock the streets of Swiss towns literally die out - he reached the hotel. In the room, he took off his bloody clothes and shoes and put them, along with blood-splattered photographs, in a bag, which he hid in the trash near the exit of the hotel's underground garage. He returned to the room and began to wait. What? He himself didn’t know what exactly. There was no longer any point in living anymore.

Detention of Vitaly Kaloev. Photo: © REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

Vitaly Kaloev just sat in the room and waited for something, looking at one point on the wall.

Police special forces broke into his room only a day later.

Regular builder

Before this monstrous tragedy, Vitaly Kaloev was an ordinary builder from North Ossetia. He was born on January 15, 1956 in the city of Vladikavkaz, formerly Ordzhonikidze. His father Konstantin Kambolatovich taught the Ossetian language at school, his mother Olga Gazbeevna worked as a teacher in a kindergarten. Vitaly also had two brothers and three sisters, among them he is the youngest. At the same time, the parents were most proud of Vitaly, who adored reading since childhood. Already at the age of five, he read fluently and learned poetry by heart, and at school he got straight A's.

After graduating from school, Kaloev entered a construction technical school, then served in the army, entered the Institute of Architecture and Construction, then got a job in the construction department of Ossetia.

In 1991, he married Svetlana Gagievskaya, who worked as the director of the local branch of Sberbank.

Soon the couple had two children - son Kostya in 1991 and daughter Diana in 1998.

In a word, this was a friendly and very wealthy family by Ossetian standards: Vitaly headed the construction department of Vladikavkaz, Svetlana worked as deputy director for finance of the Daryal brewing plant, the son studied at the most prestigious school. Then the financial crisis of 1998 hit the country, and many local businesses declared bankruptcy. And then Vitaly Kaloev decided to find work abroad. In 1999, his construction department signed a contract with a Spanish company and he left to build residential buildings in Barcelona.

01.07.2002

The family of Vitaly Kaloyev got on this flight by accident. In Moscow, Svetlana and her children had a transfer, but due to weather conditions they missed their flight and got stuck in Sheremetyevo. And after three hours of waiting, the dispatcher offered the Kaloyevs three free seats on board a Tu-154 charter flight of Bashkir Airlines, on which a group of teenagers flew to Spain - the best students of a UNESCO special school, winners of various Olympiads, who received free holiday packages on the coast Mediterranean Sea. There were several empty seats on board.

On the night of July 1, 2002, a Tu-154 collided in the air with a Boeing 747 aircraft of the international logistics company DHL, flying from Bahrain to Brussels - there were no passengers on board, only two experienced pilots. The disaster occurred near the small town of Iberlingen, near Lake Constance.

As it later turned out, the crash occurred due to the fault of dispatchers of the private Swiss company Skyguide, which managed air traffic in this area of ​​​​Germany. As experts have found out, two factors led to the disaster. On the eve of the tragedy, equipment was changed in the control room, but the new systems worked with malfunctions and errors, which the dispatchers were honestly warned about by posters hanging around the office. True, the dispatchers themselves did not pay any attention to these warnings.

Moreover, at the time of the tragedy, in violation of all norms and rules, only two people were working in the control room, one of whom was also out for a lunch break. As a result, 34-year-old Peter Nielsen had to independently cope with two remote controls and give commands to the pilots.

Because some of the equipment in the room was turned off, the controller noticed too late that the planes were dangerously close to each other. A minute before the collision, he tried to correct the situation and transmitted instructions to the Tu-154 to descend, although the automatic system for warning of dangerous approaches, on the contrary, recommended the pilots to gain altitude. The Boeing 747 also began to descend, but Nielsen, not having heard his message, made a second fatal mistake, mixing up the sides: he told the Tu-154 pilots that the Boeing was on the right, while in reality the plane was on the left.

Seconds before the collision, the plane pilots saw each other and made a desperate attempt to prevent a disaster - but it was too late.

Pearl necklace

Vitaly Kaloev, as soon as he heard about the disaster in the skies over Germany, dropped everything and went to Lake Constance. He was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the disaster. The police did not want to let him into the scene of the tragedy, but they met him halfway when they learned that he would be looking for the dead with them.

Already on the first day of work, he found a torn pearl necklace of his four-year-old daughter Diana in the forest - a few years later this image was embodied in the monument “Torn String of Pearls”, installed at the site of the disaster.

Next, Vitaly found the body of Diana’s four-year-old daughter, who, to the surprise of all rescuers, was practically unharmed. But the search engines managed to find the disfigured bodies of his wife Svetlana and ten-year-old son Konstantin only after a week and a half of work.

“I spent ten days searching for the remains of my dear children and wife,” he wrote on a website dedicated to the memory of the victims of the disaster. “My life stopped on this tragic date of 07/01/2002. I can only live with memories. The only consolation is visiting them every day graves in the cemetery in Vladikavkaz, where they are buried."

The wreckage of a crashed Tupolev at the crash site. Photo: © AP Photo/Diether Endlicher

During rescue operations from German rescuers, Kaloyev heard for the first time the name of the dispatcher Peter Nielsen, because for a long time the management of Skyguide generally denied any involvement in the disaster over Lake Constance. After this, Vitaly approached the airline’s management several times and asked the same question regarding the extent of the dispatcher’s guilt in the accident over the lake. But no one wanted to talk to him.

How to make money from tragedy

The investigation into the causes of the tragedy, which was carried out by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, took 22 months. At the same time, the management of the Skyguide company dodged as best they could. The Swiss were also helped in this by the European press, which from the very first minutes of the tragedy reflexively blamed the Russian side for what had happened: they say, everything happened because the Bashkir Airlines pilots allegedly did not know English.

Then Skyguide's lawyers set a condition for the relatives of the victims: in exchange for monetary compensation, they had to renounce all claims against other participants in the disaster in favor of the company. The calculation of compensation was drawn up with European meticulousness: parents for a deceased child - 50 thousand francs, a spouse for a spouse - 60 thousand, a child for a parent - 40 thousand. According to experts, such a requirement allowed Skyguide to file claims against DHL and even... make money from this business!

It was then that Russian people looked with surprise at cynical Europe and wondered: does this really happen in Europe?!..

Relatives of those killed in the plane crash hold placards in front of the district court in Buelach near Zurich, May 21, 2007. Photo: © AP Photo/KEYSTONE/Alessandro Della Bella

Only pressed to the wall by irrefutable facts, the Swiss through gritted teeth admitted the guilt of the management of Skyguide, which did not provide the control center with enough personnel during the night shift. At the same time, no one officially named Peter Nielsen as the culprit of the collision, and Skyguide only temporarily suspended him from work and sent him to psychological rehabilitation, without even imposing penalties.

But Vitaly Kaloev all this time lived with an obsession to achieve justice, even illusory. He wanted people who treated the relatives of the victims like garbage to finally admit their guilt and ask for forgiveness.

If he apologized...

A year after the tragedy, Kaloev came to a funeral ceremony in Iberlingen and demanded a conversation with the director of Skyguide, Alan Rossier.

I went up to him, took out photographs of the children’s graves and asked: “If your children were lying like this, how would you talk?” - Kaloev recalled. - But he didn’t even deign me to answer. Then I came to their residence and spoke harshly. I said: “You took my family away from me, and now you turn your nose up!” And forced the director to talk to me. He asked: “Are you guilty?” At first he snapped: “No. The pilots should have listened to their navigational safety device.” “But if your controller had not intervened, the planes might have flown apart?” He nodded: "Yes." I still forced him to admit his mistake. I achieved what all lawyers and jurists could not do!.. Then the director invited me to have lunch together, but I thought: “Am I going to eat at the same table with the murderers of my children?!” And he refused. And other parents agreed, and, as they told me, this Rossier cried in that restaurant... I hoped that his conscience had awakened. But it was not so.

He did not even respond to the letter offering monetary compensation.

Alain Rossier. Photo: © AP Photos/ Keystone, Walter Bieri

I didn't even look at this letter. Money in exchange for memory?! This was after that meeting with the director. I realized: they don’t consider us people!

Instead, he began to seek a meeting with the dispatcher Nielsen, but in response, in November 2003, he received a letter from Skyguide's lawyers, in which Vitaly Kaloev was notified that the company and the dispatcher had nothing to apologize to him for.

Since Vitaly Kaloev did not know where to find the dispatcher, he turned to the Moscow detective agency "Maigre-2" with a request to compile a dossier on everyone working at Skyguide. The dossier was compiled by the Swiss colleagues of the capital's detectives themselves for a generous fee. True, at the request of the Swiss, Kaloev signed a guarantee not to cause physical harm to any of the persons whose photographs were provided. However, as Kaloev stated, at that moment he had no intention of causing physical suffering to anyone. He just wanted an apology.

Then Kaloev, through acquaintances in Vladikavkaz, bought a foreign passport in the name of a certain Vasily Glukhov. As he later stated in court, he simply did not want to be arrested immediately upon arrival in Zurich - on the orders of his lawyers.

On February 24, 2004, Kaloev appeared on the threshold of Nielsen’s house and again took out photographs of his dead children: “Do these children really not deserve to at least apologize to them?!..”

It is interesting that Peter Nielsen, who was warned by Skyguide’s lawyers about the persistent interest that the Russians were showing in his person, bought himself a Swiss Sphix SDP pistol for self-defense, with which he constantly went to work. But Vitaly took Nielsen by surprise - when he was at home, the gun was in the gun safe so that small children would not accidentally find the weapon.

Out of frustration, the dispatcher hit the hand with the photographs, the cards with the portraits of Diana and Kostya fell into the dirt, and Vitaly, in a state of passion, attacked Nielsen with a folding knife.

If he had simply apologized, none of this would have happened, he repeated over and over again in court.

Sentence

The 36-year-old dispatcher became the latest, 72nd, victim of an accident over Lake Constance. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Dispatcher Peter Nielsen. Screenshot © L!FE

Within an hour after the murder, the police sent out a tip on a man of oriental appearance, dressed in black trousers and a black coat. All roads were blocked - the police were sure that the killer would try to escape from the country.

Kaloyev was caught by accident - when a hotel employee, after watching TV, decided to call the police so that, just in case, they would check their bearded guest, who had not left his room for a day.

Already at the first interrogation, Kaloev signed a confession to the murder - he saw no point in hiding. At the same time, Vitaly Kaloev expressed indignation that in Switzerland the investigation of the disaster is at a standstill.

So you think those guilty of negligent homicide should be sent to prison? - the investigator asked him.

The most important thing for me is that they apologize. I don't want them to go to jail. You won't get my children back anyway.

Why do you need these apologies? - the Germans were perplexed.

This is all I can do for my family. I live in a cemetery, thinking about only one thing: how to achieve justice.

President of the Republic of North Ossetia Taimuraz Mamsurov speaks to the media outside the court in Zurich, Switzerland, Tuesday, October 25, 2005. Photo: © AP Photo/Keystone, Walter Bieri

After the trial, journalists asked Kaloev: if he so demands an apology from Skyguide, then doesn’t he want to apologize to the Nielsen family for the crime he committed?

“I will find such an opportunity,” Kaloev answered after a moment of silence. - I feel sorry for his children.

National hero of Ossetia

Two years later - in November 2007 - by a court decision, Kaloev was released for exemplary behavior.

Almost the entire prison knew me,” Vitaly Kaloev later recalled. - When I went for a walk, many people came up to me to say hello. But until I found out how and what, I didn’t shake hands with anyone: pedophiles and sexual rapists were sitting there too. I was afraid that I would shake hands with such a person, and then, I think, I wouldn’t wash my hand.

In North Ossetia, the release of Vitaly Kaloev was perceived as a national holiday. At the Vladikavkaz airport, the national hero was met by the head of the republic, Taimuraz Mamsurov, and fans of the Alania club.

Russian Vitaly Kaloev arrived in Moscow (Domodedovo Airport). Swiss authorities have released from prison Russian Vitaly Kaloyev, who was previously convicted of murdering a dispatcher for the Swiss company Skyguide. Photo: © RIA Novosti / Anton Denisov

In 2008, Kaloev received a high post in the government of the republic: he was approved for the post of Deputy Minister of Construction Policy and Architecture of the republic. It is Kaloev who has been overseeing all significant projects for the last 10 years, for example, the construction of a television tower on Bald Mountain - with a rotating observation deck and a restaurant, just like in Moscow. Another project is the Caucasian Musical and Cultural Center named after Valery Gergiev, designed in the workshop of Norman Foster.

In this post, he became a real people's intercessor - a reception on personal issues with Deputy Minister Kaloyev was scheduled for months in advance. They come to him with any questions: they need money for medicine, building materials for repairs, to arrange a high-tech operation for someone. They know that the people's hero of the republic will not refuse.

Kaloev’s phone is also ringing off the hook with calls from the colonies: prisoners all over the country believe that only an official who has served time will meet them halfway. Moreover, most often prisoners ask to resolve the issue of prison parcels or to open a prison kiosk where they can buy tea and cigarettes.

The story of Vitaly Kaloev has already become the basis for a feature film: in 2017, the Hollywood drama “Consequences” was released, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger starred. True, Vitaly Kaloev himself criticized the film and said that he was dissatisfied with Schwarzenegger’s performance: they say, former governor California is only trying to arouse pity for itself instead of seeking justice.

Still from the film "Consequences". Photo: © kinopoisk.ru

It’s as if he’s asking for the entire film to be pitied and petted. I will say that this was not on my part, I do not want to be pitied. I wanted and insisted that the authorities understand what had happened, so that the perpetrators would receive the deserved punishment. That's all.

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The fate of architect Vitaly Kaloev from Ossetia was tragic: he lost his entire family in a plane crash. His wife and two children died. They flew by plane to Spain, where Vitaly Kaloev was working at that time.

The architect himself blamed the Swiss dispatcher for the incident, whom he then killed. The story happened 16 years ago, and now Vitaly got married for the second time.

Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: about the family

In 1991, Kaloev married Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva (born 1958).

Svetlana graduated in 1983 Faculty of Economics SOGU, having received a degree in economics. She made a career, going from an ordinary bank employee to the head of a department. Worked as a director for some time commercial bank Adamon Bank.

At the time of the meeting with Kaloev and right up to the disaster, Svetlana worked as an economist and deputy director for finance at the Daryal brewery.

In the marriage, the Kaloevs had two children - son Konstantin (born on November 19, 1991 in Vladikavkaz, was named after his paternal grandfather) and daughter Diana (born on March 7, 1998 in the same place, the name was chosen by Konstantin). Konstantin studied at Vladikavkaz school No. 5, where he managed to complete five classes. He was interested in paleontology and astronautics.

Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: tragedy of 2002

By July 2002, Kaloev had already been working in Spain for two years. He completed the construction of a cottage near Barcelona, ​​handed over the object to the customer and waited for his family, whom he had not seen for nine months.

Svetlana and her children had already arrived in Moscow by that time, but could not buy a plane ticket and only three hours before departure at the airport she was offered last-minute tickets to board the same Bashkir Airlines plane that later crashed in the sky above Lake Constance.

The collision over Lake Constance was a major aviation accident that occurred on July 1, 2002.

The Bashkir Airlines (BAL) Tu-154M airliner, operating flight BTC 2937 on the Moscow-Barcelona route, collided in the air with a DHL Boeing 757-200PF cargo aircraft, operating flight DHX 611 on the Bahrain-Bergamo-Brussels route.

The collision occurred near the small town of Uberlingen near Lake Constance (Germany). All 71 people on board both planes were killed - 2 on the Boeing (both pilots) and 69 on the Tu-154 (9 crew members and 60 passengers, among whom were 52 children).

Despite the fact that both planes were over German territory, control air traffic in this place was carried out by a private Swiss company "Skyguide".

At 21:35:32, flights BTC 2937 and DHX 611 collided almost at right angles at an altitude of 10,634 meters (FL350). The Boeing's vertical tail stabilizer hit the fuselage of the Tu-154 and broke it in half. While falling, the Tu-154 broke into four parts in the air, which fell in the vicinity of Uberlingen. The Boeing, which had lost its stabilizer, lost control and, having lost both engines during the fall, at 21:37 crashed to the ground 7 kilometers from the Tu-154 and was completely destroyed.

Everyone on board both planes (69 people on the Tu-154 and 2 on the Boeing) were killed. Despite the fact that some debris from both liners fell on residential buildings (in their courtyards), no one died on the ground...

On July 2, 2002, having learned about what had happened, Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Zurich, and from there to Germany to Uberlingen, where the disaster occurred. At first, the police did not want to let Vitaly into the crash site, but when he explained that his wife and children were there, they let him through.

According to Vitaly, his daughter Diana was found three kilometers from the plane crash site. According to a documentary on the National Geographic channel, Kaloev himself participated in the search work and first found Diana’s torn beads, and then her body.

All three were buried in Vladikavkaz.

Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: prison punishment

In the summer of 2003, Kaloev, together with Yulia Fedotova, the mother of another girl who died in a plane crash, came to Skyguide Airlines.

According to company employees, during a funeral ceremony in Uberlingen dedicated to the anniversary of the plane crash, “one of the relatives - a man with a black beard” - behaved very “excitedly” and terribly frightened the head of the company, Allen Rosier. After which this person allegedly came to the Skyguide office, where, while communicating with the company’s employees, he asked several times: “Is the dispatcher to blame for what happened?” and sought a meeting with Peter Nielsen, who was at the control panel that evening.

On February 24, 2004, Peter Nielsen was killed. The murder took place on Nielsen's doorstep in the presence of his wife and three children. The main version of the murder considered by the Swiss police was Kaloev’s revenge. Kaloev himself did not admit his guilt, but he did not deny it either - when testifying, he stated that he only remembers that he came to Nielsen, showed him photographs of his family and demanded an apology. Nilsen hit Kaloyev on the hand and knocked out the photographs, after which Kaloyev, in his words, suffered a memory loss.

Kaloev repeated that he did not repent at all of what he had done. “Peter Nielsen was rewarded for his behavior. In addition to him, SkyGuide director Alain Rossier should also be given credit,” said Kaloev.

On November 8, 2007, by a court decision, he was released for good behavior after serving part of his sentence. On November 13, Kaloev arrived in North Ossetia, where he was warmly greeted at the airport.

Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time, photo: today

In North Ossetia, Kaloev was appointed Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Policy of the republic.

On the day of his sixtieth birthday he retired, a few days before he was awarded the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia”.

In 2014, Vitaly married a second time. Taimuraz Mansurov, the former head of North Ossetia and a friend of Kaloev, told reporters about this, but refused to elaborate: “This is not a topic for discussion for us. Wife - good woman, takes care of him. They are together. What happens next is none of my business. He lives in the same house as before the tragedy.”

Vitaly Kaloev did not talk about his wife, but he did not hide anything. His new chosen one’s name is Irina, and the wedding took place according to the Ossetian rite. Kaloev explained his choice not to go to the registry office by saying that at the registry office you only receive a piece of paper. She means nothing to him. And so relatives come, everyone knows. Vitaly said that he wanted to start a family and asked Irina, she agreed.

Even before the ceremony itself, it is necessary to collect the bride price, and the Ossetian wedding itself takes place immediately in both the bride’s house and the groom’s house. Usually this is a mass celebration with the participation of more than 200 people, acquaintances, friends and relatives. At such a celebration, fun always reigns; any uninvited neighbor or acquaintance can come to it, and they have no right to refuse him. At a celebration you can always see a large table with food and sweets. The presence of a wild boar on the festive table has also become a tradition, but the most important component remains three pies, which symbolize water, sun and sky.

In the new film “Unforgiven” they are going to show the story of Vital Kaloev more realistically and listen to the hero’s comments. Let us remind you that he now lives in North Ossetia; he was released from prison in 2007, early. As he says, the pain from the tragedy has not gone away. It has only become duller and is not expressed so brightly. In order to reliably recreate the events shown in the film, the director personally met with Vitaly, and the main character was played by Dmitry Nagiyev.

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