Swiss Court Finds 4 Guilty for 2002 Collision that Killed 71

BUELACH, Switzerland (AP) -- A Swiss court Tuesday convicted four employees of Swiss air traffic control company Skyguide of negligent homicide in the deaths of 71 people in a midair plane collision five years ago.

Three people were given one-year suspended prison sentences, while the other was ordered to pay a 13,500 Swiss francs (US$11,200; euro8,250) fine for his role in the collision, on July 1, 2002, of a Bashkirian Airlines plane and a DHL cargo jet near the south German town of Ueberlingen, killing the two cargo pilots and everyone on the passenger plane.

All four will have to pay court costs.

Four other officials of Skyguide were acquitted of wrongdoing in the accident, which killed dozens of Russian schoolchildren and their families on a holiday trip to Spain. Although they were over Germany, the planes were in airspace controlled by Skyguide.

Prosecutors had requested suspended prison sentences ranging from six to 15 months for all defendants.

Danish-born air traffic controller Peter Nielsen was the only air traffic controller on duty at the time of the accident. Some of the defendants, who have not been identified because of Swiss privacy laws, blamed Nielsen for not following proper procedures.

But prosecutors in the trial said a culture of negligence and lack of risk awareness at the company contributed to the accident, and that it was not solely the fault of Nielsen.

Nielsen was stabbed to death in 2004 by a Russian man whose wife and children died in the crash.

Vitaly Kaloyev is currently serving a prison sentence of five-and-a-quarter years for the killing.

Before his death, Nielsen told investigators that he had worked under stressful conditions on the night of the crash, because a colleague took a break and maintenance on the air traffic control system had affected monitoring and communications.

Prosecutors said neighboring control centers were not informed that the main telephone connection to Skyguide was out of order on the night of the incident. German officials tried to warn Nielsen, but could not reach him.

By the time Nielsen realized the problem, he gave the planes only 44 seconds' warning that they were getting too close to each other. He also mistakenly told the Russian plane to descend -- sending it straight into the cargo jet.

• Flying in Russia Becoming Much Less Safe: Experts
• China Cuts Domestic Flights in Safety Move
• New Agency Aims to Improve Africa's Safety Record