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Tragedy in the Air: July 1st, 2002
The aircraft involved - a DHL Couriers Boeing 757 Cargo Plane, and a Bashkirian Airlines' Tupolev 154.
The makings of an air disaster - Two aircraft - one carrying mostly Russian youth heading to Spain for a vacation, the other a cargo carrying aircraft - are traveling at the same altitude, heading towards each other. They try to quickly drop their respective altitudes in order to avoid crashing into each other.
What happened - The two aircraft collide close to the Swiss and German borders. 71 people have died in the crash, and debris is scattered over a vast radius on the ground below. No reported deaths on the ground.
Who is to blame? The question of blame lingers. It appears that Swiss Air Traffic Controllers began ordering the Russian airplane to dive in order to avoid a crash less than one minute before impact. There is also the contention that the pilots in the Russian plane did not immediately respond to the orders of Swiss Air Traffic Controllers, thus leading to the accident. It appears that the pilots of the cargo plane responded to their airplane's collision avoidance system and began a rapid descent to try and avoid tragedy in the air.
Safety Issues - The safety record of a number of Russian aircraft has been questioned in the past, and may be a factor in completing this tragic story. And the bigger question regarding safety seems to be how could two planes be flying so close to each other in the first place?
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