The film “Unforgiven” about the fate of an Ossetian architect convicted of lynching became the leader of the Russian box office. Why?
It’s unlikely just because of the content of the picture itself. Every man, reflecting on this story, asks himself the question: “What would I do in his place?” Kaloev himself passed sentence on the man whom he considered responsible for the death of those closest to him - he made his choice and carried it out. How fair was his revenge?
"AiF" decided to talk about what he learned from himself Vitaly Kaloev.
In July 2002, the Bashkir Airlines Tu-154, on which the Kaloev family was flying, collided in the air with a Boeing 757 cargo plane. The disaster, in which more than 70 people died (including 52 children), occurred near Lake Constance in Germany. The reason was the incorrect actions of a 34-year-old dispatcher of the Swiss airline Skyguide (translated from English as “sky guide”) Peter Nielsen, who regulated air traffic in the area - gave commands to the pilots. Due to inattention or fatigue, he realized too late that the planes’ courses could intersect, and then with his mistakes, confusing right and left, he made the situation irreversible. However, the management of Skyguide from the very beginning began to deny their guilt, hinting that everything happened because the Russian pilots allegedly did not know English. Nielsen also did not admit guilt.
The meeting between Kaloev and Nielsen became fatal for both - the Ossetian stabbed the dispatcher to death, and he himself ended up in a Swiss prison.
In 2007, I met Vitaly Kaloev at Domodedovo, where he flew after his release, and a couple of days later I visited him in Vladikavkaz. We spoke in the large and comfortable house that he designed and built for the family. Kaloev smoked, his fingers trembled slightly. And he explained: “I only demanded that the people from the airline apologize to the relatives of the victims, as they should be, as human beings. But they lied and claimed that they had nothing to do with it...”Before the tragedy, he was not an unknown person from whom one can expect unknown things: he worked as the head of the construction department and, as a civil engineer, had a hand in the construction of many beautiful buildings in Vladikavkaz, including the largest Cathedral of St. George the Victorious in the city (in the late 90s he erected the foundation and first floor of the temple). Since 1999, he has been building residential buildings in Barcelona for immigrants from Ossetia, under a contract with a Spanish company. With my wife Svetlana lived together for 11 years. son Costa my daughter was 10 Diana- 4 years. He himself turned 46 at the time of the disaster.
The next day after it, Kaloev flew to Zurich, got to the site where the Tu wreckage fell and convinced the police to let him through the cordon. He spent 10 days searching for the remains. On the very first day, I found the torn pearl necklace of Diana’s daughter, then her body. The bodies of his wife and son were found much later.
Vitaly Kaloev among the militias. August 9, 2008 Photo: / Vladimir Kozhemyakin
"If only they would apologize..."
That day in front of me was an extremely tired and exhausted man with a shy, slightly confused smile. Even in his own house, he walked like a prisoner, hunched over and with his hands behind his back. He broke his fingers in the joints with a crunch when he suddenly fell silent during a conversation, and, upon waking up, he could light up and even remember the funny moments of his Swiss imprisonment. But then he immediately retreated into himself. It was like a compressed spring, and meanwhile the small children of his Ossetian relatives were running carelessly along the corridors. Children's laughter was again heard in his house - but not the same...
“The Swiss brushed me off on the phone like I was an annoying fly,” he recalled. - On the anniversary, I came to Germany to the site of the disaster, approached Skyguide director Alain Rossier, took out photographs of the children’s graves and asked: “If your children were lying like this, how would you talk?” But he didn’t even deign me to answer. Then I came to their residence and said sharply: “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 safety navigation device, not the controller." “But if your controller had not intervened, the planes might have flown apart?” He nodded: “Yes”... I still forced him to admit his mistake. Achieved what all lawyers and jurists could not do! The German lawyer, who was sitting nearby, jumped up in his chair in surprise when he heard this... 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...".
Then he took out a lawyer's report with a proposal for payment of compensation, drawn up with cynical pettiness: parents for a dead child - 50 thousand francs, a spouse for a spouse - 60 thousand, a child for a parent - 40 thousand. Children (and children) - cheaper.. “I didn’t even look at it. Money in exchange for memory?! I realized: they don’t consider us people! It’s like during an investigation, when they deliberately provoke detainees... The local prosecutor told me politely, without putting words into the protocol: “Here, in Switzerland, raising a child under 10 years old costs 200 thousand francs. And the lives of children themselves have no value here at all.” He was waiting for me to explode, saying, it turns out that your children are priceless, but mine are not even worth asking for forgiveness for their death? But I didn't do it." Then Kaloev showed another letter from Skyguide’s lawyers, in which he was notified that the company had nothing to apologize to him for: “And Rossier did not apologize either. If he had apologized, nothing would have happened.”
At the trial in Switzerland, Kaloev repeated the same thing. He approached Rossier and other Skyguide managers, asking the same question: who is to blame? He never heard an answer.
Vitaly Kaloev with a South Ossetian militia in Java. August 9, 2008 Photo: / Vladimir Kozhemyakin
“I drove him away like a dog!”
The Germans were investigating the collision. Later, the Swiss reluctantly admitted their responsibility for the fact that that night there were only two people in the control center - Nielsen and an assistant, and the rest of the staff was absent for various reasons. But no one named Nielsen himself, who worked for himself and his colleague, monitoring the situation behind two terminals at once, as the culprit. He was only temporarily suspended from business, not even punished with a fine, and was sent for psychological rehabilitation.
A few years later, I called Vitaly Kaloev with a question: did he forgive this man? “Just as this dispatcher was for me the murderer of my family, he remains so,” he answered irreconcilably. - What kind of forgiveness can there be if he didn’t even try to apologize? Neither he, nor his relatives, nor his colleagues, until they got it... It’s the same with this airline: its leaders behaved towards me and all the relatives of the victims arrogantly and boorishly, like human garbage. Who prevented them from addressing us as human beings? Then the situation, perhaps, would smooth out, the person would resign himself. But they spat in our faces - so what, we had to wipe it off and endure it?”
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A year and seven months after the disaster, he came to the porch of Peter Nielsen’s house. The dispatcher opened the door, but when he saw the guest, he slammed it. “I called again, said in German: “I’m from Russia,” and gestured that I wanted to come in,” Kaloev recalled. - Nielsen finally left the threshold. I handed him an envelope with photographs of the bodies of my children and showed him: look! But he pushed my hand away and reacted with a rude gesture - like, get out! Like a dog who was told: “Get out!” I handed him the photo a second time and said in Spanish: “Look! Don’t these children deserve to at least apologize to them?!” He slapped my hand hard - this time the photographs fell and scattered on the floor. My vision went dark. It seemed to me that the bodies of my children were thrown out of their coffins onto the ground...”
When the photos fell, Kaloev grabbed a small folding Swiss knife with a 10-centimeter blade from his pocket, rushed at Nielsen and, as the official report says, struck him 12 times in the chest, head, legs... As criminologists later said, “he cut his victim on the belts with a penknife.”
Vitaly Kaloev with the President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity in the center of Java. The third in the frame is a militia member of the South Ossetian armed forces. August 9, 2008 Photo: / Vladimir Kozhemyakin
“Didn’t watch the movie”
He said: “Even before arriving in Switzerland, I told myself: if you don’t want to lose yourself, then you have to go to the end... I have never regretted it. And if I had acted differently, I would not have considered myself worthy of my own guys...” Nielsen is survived by his wife and three children, who, by the way, were in the house at the time of the murder. Kaloev was sentenced to 8 years of strict regime. He served 2 years and was released for good behavior. At home, in Vladikavkaz, he was received as a national hero and until his retirement he worked as Deputy Minister of Construction Policy and Architecture of the republic. On the second day of the “five-day war” in South Ossetia, August 9, 2008, he put me in his Volga and drove me to Dzhava, the village in which the headquarters of the President of the Republic of South Ossetia was located. Eduard Kokoity. He was carrying food and medicine in his trunk for the Ossetian militias.
In 2017, the American film “Consequences” was released with Arnold Schwarzenegger, filmed according to the script based on the story of Kaloev. He himself did not like this “Hollywood”, including because “the main character there puts too much pressure on self-pity.” Kaloev does not want to be pitied. And after the release of “Unforgiven” with Dmitry Nagiyev in the title role, he refused to comment at all.
Saying goodbye to Kaloev on the day of the meeting, I asked him to take a photo next to an old dried tree. It seemed symbolic at the time. He repeated: “It’s over. I live only to go to the grave of my family...” After the release of the film “Unforgiven,” I again called him in Vladikavkaz. “I did not watch this film, although I was present at the screening where I was invited,” he said. - I didn’t even read the script that was handed to me, because I don’t want to plunge into this grief. What are you doing now? I'm resting, retired. My family and friends don’t forget, everyone is next to me, thank you.”
When asked about changes in his personal life, he answered: “Come and you’ll see...”. As it recently became known, in 2018 Vitaly Kaloev entered into a civil marriage with his new wife Irina, their wedding took place according to the Ossetian rite. The dead tree came to life.
In 2002, on the night of July 2, a passenger Tu-154 collided with a cargo Boeing 757 over Lake Constance in Germany. There were 71 passengers in the Tu-154, of which 52 were children. The family of architect Vitaly Kaloev died in that plane crash.
The passenger plane was heading on a charter flight from Moscow to Barcelona, and the Boeing cargo plane was heading from Bergamo (Italy) to Brussels. Children (52 people) were taken to Spain to relax - vouchers were issued by the UNESCO Committee of Bashkiria for high academic achievements.
Among the passengers of the Tu-154 were Vitaly Kaloev’s wife Svetlana, their 10-year-old son Kostya and 4-year-old daughter Diana. Vitaly Kaloev himself was working in Barcelona at that time, and the family flew to him. After a collision with a Boeing cargo plane, the Tu-154 simply fell apart in the sky. The debris was found in the vicinity of Uberlingen within a radius of 40 square meters. km. It took rescuers a whole week to find the bodies of all the dead: they were scattered across the field, near nearby buildings, on the side of the road.
The story of the tragedy of Vitaly Kaloev, how he killed the dispatcher
The plane crash occurred several minutes after German air traffic controllers handed over the escort of the Russian plane to their colleagues in Switzerland working at the SkyGuide center at Zurich-Kloten Airport.
According to the rules, two dispatchers should be on duty, but there was only one - Dane Peter Nielsen. He gave the order to the crew of the Russian passenger plane to descend at the very moment when neither he nor the Boeing cargo plane could occupy safe levels. It soon became known:
— The main equipment for telephone communication and automatic notification of center personnel about the dangerous approach of aircraft was turned off. The main and backup phone lines were not working.
The planes were approaching, everything pointed to a plane crash. A dispatcher from Karlsruhe, Germany noticed this and tried to call eleven times, but to no avail.
Peter Nielsen worked for some time after the tragedy, then he was fired.
Vitaly Kaloev was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy. The director could not find a place for himself, because his entire family died - his beloved wife and two small children. At first, the special services did not allow him into the area of the plane crash, but he said that he wanted to search for the bodies of the dead with them, and he was given permission. During the search operation, Vitaly Kaloev discovered a pearl necklace. It was a decoration for his daughter Diana. The baby's body had virtually no serious damage. Soon the mutilated bodies of Svetlana and Kostya were found.
When Vitaly Kaloev found out that the plane crash was the fault of the dispatcher Peter Nielsen, he tried many times to contact the management of the aviation company. He wanted to know to what extent the dispatcher was to blame for the tragedy. Then he decided to talk to Peter Nielsen himself, and asked SkyGuide to organize a meeting for them. Initially, the company agreed, then refused without explaining the reason. A year passed, mourning events were organized to mark the anniversary of the terrible tragedy, and the director again contacted the company with the same questions and demands, and was again refused. But he had no intention of giving up.
February 24, 2004 was the last day of the life of former dispatcher Peter Nielsen - Vitaly Kaloev dealt with him in his home in Kloten (a suburb of Zurich). The director came to him with photographs of the dead family, expecting repentance from him. However, the man pushed Vitaly Kaloev away, and the photographs scattered. The director simply “lost his temper” and killed the man, inflicting more than twenty wounds with a knife. The dispatcher is survived by his wife and three children.
Vitaly Kaloev was very quickly detained by the Swiss police: an orientation letter was sent out to him. The director was detained at a local hotel and interrogated. He told how he found out where Peter Nielsen lives, what his family is like. He also said that he was in a state of passion when he stabbed Nilsen in his home.
Vitaly Kaloev was sent for a psychiatric examination. Based on the results obtained, he was found sane. The trial took place in October 2005: the director was given a sentence of 8 years, which he served in a Swiss prison. True, Vitaly Kaloyev was released in 2007 by decision of the Supreme Court of Switzerland for good behavior. Upon returning to North Ossetia, he began working as Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction.
Swiss air traffic controllers were proven guilty.
— The control center in Zurich did not immediately notice the danger of two aircraft converging at the same echelon. As a result, the Tu-154 pilots followed the dispatcher’s command to descend, while the on-board flight safety system required them to urgently gain altitude.
The airline admitted guilt. A couple of years after the crash, Alain Rossier, director of SkyGuide, publicly apologized to the families of the victims. Vladimir Putin received a letter from the then Swiss President Joseph Deiss.
The film “Aftermath” was made about this plane crash, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Two days ago, on September 20, a press screening of “Unforgiven” by Sarik Andreasyan about the same tragedy took place. Vitaly Kaloyev was entrusted to play Dmitry Nagiyev.
What's wrong with Vitaly Kaloev now?
My heart aches for Vitaly Kaloev. But the man is trying to be strong, to arrange his life. Recently it became known that he got married again. The director speaks little and with caution about the new family. It is known that the chosen one’s name is Irina, they got married according to the Ossetian rite.
Irina and Vitaly Kaloyev became husband and wife back in 2014. The director is now 62 years old. On his anniversary (60th birthday) he was given the award “For the Glory of Ossetia”.
Sixteen years ago, a terrible plane crash occurred in the skies over Germany, which claimed the lives of 71 people - 52 children and 19 adults. These were passengers and crew of a Russian Tu-154 aircraft and a Boeing 757 cargo plane. On the night of July 1–2, 2002, aircraft collided in Germany due to an error by Swiss air traffic controllers.
How the Tu-154 collided with the Boeing 757
Tu‑154 of the Bashkir Airlines company was operating a charter flight from Moscow to Barcelona, a cargo Boeing‑757 of the international air transportation company DHL was flying from Italian Bergamo to Brussels. On board the Tu-154 there were 12 crew members and 57 passengers - 52 children and five adults. The children were flying to Spain on vacation. They were given a voucher by the UNESCO Committee of Bashkiria for their excellent studies.
On the plane was a family from Vladikavkaz - Svetlana Kaloyeva with 10-year-old Kostya and four-year-old Diana. They were heading to the head of the family, architect Vitaly Kaloev, who worked in Barcelona under a contract.
Colliding with a cargo plane, the Tu-154 broke into several parts in the air. They fell in the vicinity of the city of Uberlingen (federal state of Baden-Württemberg). The debris was scattered over a radius of 40 square kilometers. Rescuers searched for the bodies of the victims for a week, finding them in fields, next to buildings and on the side of roads.
The tragedy occurred a few minutes after German air traffic controllers handed over the escort of the Russian aircraft to their colleagues from Switzerland, who were located at the SkyGuide air control center operating at Zurich-Kloten Airport.
Dispatcher Peter Nielsen's fault
On that fateful night, only one dispatcher was on duty at work - Peter Nielsen, despite the fact that according to the rules there should have been two. The Dane ordered the Tu-154 crew to descend, while the airliners approaching each other no longer had the opportunity to occupy safe echelons.
Later, the media learned that the main equipment for telephone communication and automatic notification of center personnel about dangerous proximity of aircraft was turned off. The main and backup phone lines were not working. The air traffic controller in Karlsruhe, Germany, drew attention to the dangerous approach of the planes. The man tried to call 11 times, but to no avail.
At first, Nielsen continued to work after the disaster, but then SkyGuide fired him.
Kaloev's revenge: more than 20 stab wounds
Heartbroken Vitaly Kaloev, who was waiting for his family in Spain, was one of the first to arrive in Germany, to the site of the plane crash. At first, the special services did not want to let him into the tragedy zone, but agreed when they learned that he agreed to search for the bodies of the dead with them. As a result, in the forest, Kaloev found a pearl necklace that belonged to his daughter Diana. To the surprise of the rescuers, the girl’s body was almost undamaged. Later, the bodies of his son and wife, disfigured by the disaster, would be discovered.
Having learned from journalists about the fault of the dispatcher in the disaster, Kaloev many times persistently made attempts to talk with the airline management. He asked the same question regarding the extent of Nielsen's guilt in what happened. It is known that the director of the company was very scared of the “Russian with a beard.”
Then Kaloev decided to talk directly with the Dane. He asked Skyguide to facilitate this meeting. At first they gave consent, but then they flatly refused and did not explain the reasons for this. During the mourning events dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy, Kaloev again approached the leaders of the Swiss company, but nevertheless they refused to answer him.
On February 24, 2004, a Russian killed Nielsen in his home in the Zurich suburb of Kloten. Kaloev came to the dispatcher’s house to show him photographs of his dead wife and children. He wanted the man to repent of what he had done. But Nielsen pushed him away, causing the photographs to fall to the ground. Kaloev lost control of himself and inflicted more than 20 knife wounds on the dispatcher, from which he died. Nielsen is survived by his wife and three children.
Kaloev's punishment
Swiss police quickly found the Danish killer. A tip was sent out to a man of oriental appearance who was wearing a black coat and trousers of the same color. Kaloyev was found nearby at a local hotel. During interrogation, he told how he found out Nilsen’s address and what happened in his apartment. According to him, he entered the dispatcher’s house and showed him the photographs. And what happened next, the grief-stricken father and husband did not remember. He didn’t tell the investigator anything else.
It was decided to place him in a psychiatric clinic for examination. Experts found him sane, and in October 2005 the court sentenced him to eight years in prison. Kaloev served his sentence in a Swiss prison. Meanwhile, already in the fall of 2007, the Supreme Court of Switzerland decided to release him from punishment for exemplary behavior. Kaloev returned to his homeland in North Ossetia, where he was appointed deputy minister of architecture and construction of the republic.
Results of the investigation, SkyGuide apology
In the spring of 2004, German authorities released a conclusion based on the results of the investigation into the disaster.
Experts have come to the conclusion that Swiss air traffic controllers are to blame for the collision between the Bashkir Airlines Tu-154 and a Boeing cargo plane. The control center in Zurich did not immediately notice the danger of two aircraft converging on the same flight level. As a result, the Tu-154 pilots followed the dispatcher’s command to descend, while the on-board flight safety system required them to urgently gain altitude.
Only after the expert report was published did SkyGuide admit its mistakes. Two years after the disaster, director Alain Rossier apologized to the families of the victims. On May 19, 2004, then-Swiss President Joseph Deiss sent his counterpart Vladimir Putin an official letter of apology for the plane crash.
Based on the tragedy over Lake Constance, “Aftermath” was released in the United States in 2017 (the first title was “478”) with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role.
On Thursday, September 20, there will be a press screening of the feature film “Unforgiven” directed by Sarik Andreasyan about the plane crash over Lake Constance. Architect Vitaly Kaloev was played by a famous Russian actor in the social drama
15 years have passed since the tragedy over Lake Constance. The film “Consequences” once again reminded the whole world of the act of the inconsolable father Vitaly Kaloev. Then the public was divided into two camps. Some justified his actions by citing his grave condition and passion. Others considered him a brutal killer who killed the dispatcher in front of his wife and children. How does Vitaly Kaloev, who lost his entire family, live now, and how did this terrible story end? Let's find out all the details and try to understand this extraordinary incident.
Biography
Born on January 15, 1956 in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz). My father was a school teacher - he taught the Ossetian language. Mother worked as a kindergarten teacher. Vitaly was the youngest in a large family - there were three brothers and three sisters in total. He graduated from school with honors and went to study the art of architecture. While studying, he worked part-time as a construction foreman. Before perestroika, he worked as an architect and took part in the construction of the Sputnik military camp.
In the difficult years after the collapse of the USSR, he formed his own construction cooperative. Since 1999 he lived in Spain, where he designed houses for his compatriots.
Family
Vitaly Kaloev married Svetlana Pushkinovna Gagieva in 1991. The girl graduated from the Faculty of Economics and successfully built a career. Starting as a simple bank employee, she rose to the rank of department head. On November 19, 1991, the first child appeared in the family. The boy was named Konstantin in honor of his paternal grandfather. Diana was born on March 7, 1998. Kostya chose his sister’s name. At school, the boy studied well and was drawn to astronautics and paleontology.
Unlucky flight
Vitaly Kaloev had not seen his family for nine months and was looking forward to their arrival in Spain. He worked successfully in Barcelona and managed to complete the project by the time his family arrived. Svetlana and her children could not buy tickets in Moscow until seats became available on that same Bashkir Airlines plane.
Late at night on July 2, 2002, two planes collided in the skies over southern Germany: a passenger TU-154 and a cargo Boeing 757. Both crews were killed, and children were killed - 52 children aged from 8 to 16 years. Almost all of them were students at the Ufa school for especially gifted children. They were flying to Barcelona. They were awarded vouchers for their academic success and brilliant results in school competitions.
Collision
This disaster became the worst tragedy in the history of civil aviation of the 21st century. The plane collision occurred in the skies over Germany, so the investigation was carried out by the German prosecutor's office and the Federal Bureau of Air Accident Investigation. It took two years to establish the cause of the disaster. For the Germans, the main questions were two: how did the dangerous approach of two aircraft occur and why was the collision avoidance system unable to prevent the disaster?
The commission found that the aircraft collision was the result of an error by the Skyguide dispatcher, contradictions in the instructions of the international civil aviation organization and the rules of the collision avoidance system. And also because of the incorrect actions of the TU-154 crew. Further investigation proved the accusations against the Russian pilots to be unfounded, and they will be cleared of blame for the collision. However, the fate of another Russian, whose trial took place at the end of October 2005, is already clear. deprived him of his family and faith in justice.
The most superficial glance at the commission’s findings shows that the results of the investigation are extremely contradictory. If at the time of the crash the pilots followed the dispatcher's instructions, then the dispatcher is to blame. If in a critical situation the pilots acted contrary to instructions from the ground, then the pilots themselves are to blame, and the dispatcher has absolutely nothing to do with it. This strange fact would have gone unnoticed if not for one dramatic incident in the small Swiss town of Kloten.
Murder of Peter Nielsen
On February 24, 2004, in the Zurich suburb of Kloten, a certain Peter Nielsen was brutally murdered on the threshold of his own home. The killer struck the victim numerous times with a bladed weapon, which was later found near the scene of the incident. It turned out to be a souvenir knife worth 54. A neighbor of the murdered man testified that a few minutes before the incident, a stranger asked her in bad German where Peter Nielsen lived.
Hot on the trail, a sketch of the suspect was compiled. However, no witnesses to the crime could be found. This was strange because Kloten is a small village where the houses are located a few meters apart. The streets, approaches and entrances are clearly visible from the windows, and all life goes on in full view of the neighbors. The Swiss police immediately rejected the robbery version. The criminal or criminals did not touch anything in the house. Why then was it necessary to take the life of a simple resident of a Swiss village?
Identifying the killer
The answer came at the moment when it became clear that Peter Nielsen was the same controller whose erroneous commands led to the collision of two planes. The very next day, the police arrested Russian citizen Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev. According to the Swiss investigation, the accused went to the dispatcher's house the night before and had a conversation with a neighbor. The man rang the doorbell, and when the owner of the house came out, he tried to talk to him. Then there was a quarrel, and Kaloev was the first to take out a knife. Vitaly Kaloev killed the dispatcher, stabbing him 12 times. Initially, the first suspect was another Russian, Vladimir Savchuk. He also lost his entire family in a plane crash, but had an airtight alibi. On the day of the murder he was in Russia.
Reasons and motives
The motive for the crime, according to Swiss law enforcement agencies, could be the Russian’s personal revenge. In Kaloev he lost his entire family - his wife and two children. But he did not admit his guilt in the murder of the dispatcher. From the investigation materials. “I knocked, identified myself and gestured to be invited into the house. He didn’t want to invite me and took on a defiant look. I said nothing, took a photograph of my dead children out of my pocket and handed it to him, telling him to look.” What happened after that, Kaloev does not remember. During interrogation, he stated: “I don’t remember what actually happened. But when I see the evidence, I think it was me who killed Mr. Nielsen.” The Swiss prosecutor's office considered these words of the Russian an official admission of his guilt. However, some of the facts raise more questions than answers. Why did Kaloev go to kill the dispatcher, taking with him an inconvenient pocket knife? Why did Nilsen wait for the killer to pull out a gun and open it instead of hiding in the house?
The tragedy of Vitaly Kaloev
The Russian was among the first to arrive at the site of the plane crash and was eager to examine the accident site together with the rescuers. Having learned that his entire family was on this flight, he was given permission to enter the cordoned off area. He wandered for a long time between the wreckage of the plane, trying to find his wife and children. Finally, three kilometers from the crash site, he found the beads of his youngest daughter, and then Diana herself. A little later, he discovered the body of his son. It later turned out that the boy fell right next to the intersection that Vitaly was passing by, but he did not recognize him as his child. Witnesses and video footage served as the best evidence of the man’s unbearable grief: he was choking on sobs and literally could not control himself during these terrible days. He did not leave the scene of the plane crash until the last hours. Vitaly Kaloev not only lost his family - he lost his life.
Support and assistance
Kaloev perfectly remembers all the moments of being at the scene of the tragedy. He recalls how at first they did not want to let him participate in the search, but then the situation changed. Volunteers and police simply could not stand being in this territory. People fainted and were removed. When he discovered the place where his Diana fell, he began to touch the ground, trying to understand whether the soul of his child remained here or had already gone to heaven. He felt the beads with his fingers and asked the German woman if it was possible to erect a monument to Diana in this place? Fundraising began immediately, and later the architect erected a monument to all the victims of the disaster on this site. It represents a torn string of beads.
Questionable treatment
After his arrest, Kaloev was placed in a psychiatric hospital. During the entire time Vitaly was there, there was not a single independent examination that would objectively assess the Russian’s condition and methods of treatment. He spent a whole year in the clinic. What happened to his memory during this time? One thing is clear - even after many months of treatment, Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloev never took responsibility for the death of dispatcher Nielsen. According to investigators, the Russian wanted to avenge the death of his wife and two children. This is a serious motive. But why then did Kaloev delay taking revenge for almost a year and a half, since he learned the name of the dispatcher in the first days after the disaster?
Sentence
On October 26, 2005, the story of Vitaly Kaloev again appeared on the pages of all printed publications. The Russian was sentenced to eight years in prison. The world community again remembered those terrible days and the tragedy over Lake Constance. The people of Switzerland themselves did not expect such a harsh sentence. In prison, the Russian received batches of letters in which people expressed their support and wished him a speedy release. He corresponded with some people, in particular with one Swiss woman. She sent him cards and cheered him up these two years. Her friend's children drew pictures for him. At home in Ossetia, the people were indignant and demanded a review of the case. Based on circumstantial evidence alone and without a confession, Kaloyev was imprisoned for eight years.
Liberation
The Swiss authorities did not interfere with the release of the Russian after two years of imprisonment. For exemplary behavior, he was released and returned home. In North Ossetia he was greeted as a national hero. The first thing the man did was go to the cemetery, where he cried for a long time at the grave of his wife and children. The years could not erase all the pain and resentment from his memory and heart. Now he could calmly talk about what he had to endure during those year and a half. He didn't need monetary compensation. All he wanted was to hear words of apology from the company itself. Without getting even a word of repentance from them, he went home to the dispatcher. But he behaved impudently and knocked photographs of dead children out of his hands. He doesn’t remember further events, but even if his hands are really bloody, he didn’t do it for fun. The fate of Vitaly Kaloev was very difficult, and he paid in full for this crime.
Another life
Returning home, Kaloev received the post of Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Policy of the republic. He actively took part in many public events. Everyone who knew and communicated with Vitaly characterizes him as a kind and sympathetic person. He will never pass by someone else's grief. During the war in South Ossetia, he was seen in the ranks of the militia, but no one began to confirm this information.
Many are interested in where Vitaly Kaloev lives and what is happening to him now. At the moment, favorable changes have occurred in his life. In 2014, Vitaly Kaloev married for the second time. His wife was a kind, decent woman. He does not disclose details of his family life. What is known is that he still lives in the same house where his former family lived. On his anniversary (60 years) he received the medal “For the Glory of Ossetia”. He answers all questions about his actions and Nielsen’s family like this: “His children are growing up healthy, cheerful, his wife is happy with her children, his parents are happy with their grandchildren. Who should I be happy about? Everyone decides for himself how strong Vitaly Kaloev’s guilt is in front of another family.
Vitaly Kaloev is a seemingly ordinary person, a Soviet architect and builder. But the event that occurred on July 1, 2002, radically changed the man’s life, completely depriving it of meaning.
In a plane crash, Vitaly Konstantinovich lost his wife and two children. The grief-stricken father and loving husband decided to punish dispatcher Peter Nielsen, who was responsible for the tragedy. This story has acquired a global scale: Vitaly’s act is talked about not only in Russia, but also in other countries.
Childhood and youth
The biography of Vitaly Kaloev began on January 15, 1956 in North Ossetia, in the city of Vladikavkaz, formerly Ordzhonikidze. The boy grew up in the village of Chermen in an intelligent family: his father Konstantin Kambolatovich, an Ossetian by nationality, taught his native language at school, and his mother Olga Gazbeevna worked as a teacher. Vitaly has two brothers and three sisters, among them he is the youngest.
In the Kaloyevs’ house there were many books on the shelves, since the father of the family often bought literature even with his last money. Vitya loved to read the epics of his native country, as well as the works of Russian writers. The little boy was distinguished by his mental abilities: at the age of 5 he was already calmly learning poetry by heart, unlike his brothers and sisters.
In high school, the gifted boy studied with honors, his diary showed only A's. After graduating from school, Kaloev enters a construction college, and then goes to serve in the army.
Career
After the army, Vitaly successfully passed the exams at the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute and entered the Faculty of Architecture. Kaloev did not waste his time studying; the talented student worked part-time as a foreman at a construction site, learning the basics of the profession in practice. Kaloyev’s brigade participated in the construction of the Sputnik military camp near Vladikavkaz.
Architect Vitaly Kaloev In the late 80s, Vitaly created his own construction cooperative. Later, the architect was invited to the position of head of the construction department in the capital of North Ossetia. Since 1999, he collaborated with a Spanish construction company that was engaged in the construction of houses for immigrants from the Caucasus.
Personal life
According to the memoirs of Yuri, Vitaly’s brother, the younger Kaloev was in no hurry to get married. Konstantin Kambolatovich dreamed of his son getting married and even raised four bulls as a holiday gift, but Vitaly first wanted to get on his feet and then start a family to provide for his wife and children.
Kaloev met his future bride, Svetlana Gagievskaya, at a bank where she worked as a director.
In 1991, in the winter, the lovers got married, there was a large-scale celebration in the Kaloev family: finally Vitaly got married, and even the relatives liked the bride. The couple had two children: son Kostya in 1991 and daughter Diana in 1998.
Kostya studied well at school and was also interested in astronautics. Vitaly tried to raise his children in peace and harmony: the Kaloev family lived together in harmony, the man still had home footage of happy times when everyone was smiling. In a video from the family archive, Kaloev carried his daughter in his arms and laughed all the time.
Airplane crash and dispatcher murder
In the summer of 2002, Vitaly worked in Spain, building a cottage for a customer. Due to his stay abroad, the man did not see his wife and children for 9 months. Svetlana and her children decided to visit her husband in a sunny country.
Arriving at the Moscow airport, the Kaloyev family did not purchase tickets to Barcelona due to the cancellation of the flight, but three hours before departure, the woman was offered seats on the Bashkir Airlines plane, and Svetlana immediately agreed. They were met by Vitaly’s brother Yuri, and, according to his recollections, the woman was panicking because she did not make it on time for the flight.
The plane was flying to Barcelona, almost all the passengers on board were children who received free trips to Spain from the state for good studies and victories at the Olympics. Therefore, the company decided to sell off the remaining eight seats: there were 71 people on board the plane.
The airliner flew over Germany late at night; the private Swiss company Skyguide was managing the flights. At the time of the tragedy, 2 people were working in the control room, one of whom was away for a break. 34-year-old Peter Nielsen had to independently cope with two remote controls and give commands to the pilots.
Some of the equipment in the control room was turned off, and the telephone connection did not work. Peter Nielsen noticed late that the Boeing, which was flying to Brussels, was on the same flight level with the Tu-154 aircraft of Bashkir Airlines. Peter tried to correct the situation and gave orders for flight 2937 to descend. At the same time, the TCAS electronic automatic system gave the same command to the Boeing to descend.
The pilots of Flight 611 tried to inform Nielsen that they had complied with the TCAS command, but the air traffic controller was giving instructions to another crew and listened to the message from the Boeing command.
Before the tragedy, in a matter of seconds, the Boeing and Tu-154 pilots saw each other and did everything possible to prevent the accident from happening, completely deflecting the controls.
The planes collided at right angles over Lake Constance, near the town of Iberlingen in Germany on July 1, 2002 at 21:35. All people on board both crews were killed.
Vitaly learned about the tragedy on the morning of July 2. At 7 o'clock he called his brother Yuri and cried. Kaloev immediately flew from Barcelona to Switzerland, and from there he got to Iberlingen to the scene of the tragedy. Vitaly, together with the police, took part in search operations and soon independently found the body of his little daughter.
After the two planes collided, lawsuits began between the airlines. Bashkir Airlines filed a lawsuit against the Federal Republic of Germany for using the services of foreign commercial organizations, and against Skyguide for employee negligence and equipment failure. During the investigation, Peter Nielsen was not fired and continued to perform his job duties. Winterthur, the insurer of the Swiss airline, paid compensation to the relatives of the victims in the amount of $150 thousand.
The family's funeral took place at home. The farewell ceremony was attended by several thousand compatriots. After the incident, Vitaly Kaloev lost the meaning of life, which was family. The grief-stricken father spent almost every day at the cemetery. Work lost its meaning for him.
Vitaly Kaloev at the grave of his wife and children The only thing Vitaly saw as a goal for himself was ordinary human apologies and recognition of his guilt by Peter Nielsen, who, according to the man, was to blame for the tragedy that occurred. The dispatcher got away with only a fine and continued to work for Skyguide, living a normal life with his wife and small children.
In the summer of 2003, Vitaly came to Skyguide in search of justice. The man hoped to wait for an apology for his broken life. According to the recollections of the director of the Swiss organization Allen Rosier, Vitaly behaved excitedly, constantly asking the dispatchers whether Nielsen was to blame for the incident. He also sought a meeting with Peter, who was working that day, but was refused.
Kaloev stopped believing in God and continued to seek justice on his own. In the winter of 2004, hoping to talk with Peter, Vitaly goes to the Swiss town of Kloten. Nielsen's neighbor told the man where the air traffic controller's house was located.
Standing on the threshold with a photo of his wife and children, Vitaly knocked on the door of the culprit of the tragedy. Nielsen opened it. Kaloev began to communicate with the dispatcher in broken German, showing a photo, hoping that the criminal would repent. Instead of apologizing to the unknown man, Peter pushes him and the photographs fall to the ground.
On February 24, 2004, Nilsen died from 12 stab wounds on the threshold of his own home in the presence of his family. Kaloev did not admit to what he had done, but he also did not deny his guilt, because due to clouding of his mind, he does not remember what happened that day.
A Swiss court sentenced Kaloyev to 8 years in prison, proving that he killed the dispatcher. When Vitaly Konstantinovich was serving his sentence, letters from all over the world arrived in prison in his name from unknown people who expressed condolences to the prisoner. There were so many messages that they were counted by weight. Over the course of 2 years, about 20 kg of letters accumulated, which the architect took away after his release.
In the fall of 2008, Vitaly was released early for good behavior. In Russia this man was greeted as a real hero. Kaloev admits: he was pleased that hundreds of people supported him, but he himself does not consider himself a hero and does not want to be pitied.
After his release, Vitaly managed to improve his personal life. The man found new love and married for the second time in 2012. His wife was Irina Dzarasova, an engineer at Sevkavkazenergo OJSC. Only close relatives of the newlyweds were present at the wedding. Now Kaloev and his wife live in the house that Vitaly built for his first family. This is a large building with many rooms, stucco molding made in the national style. The architect built the mansion with the hope that his children and grandchildren would live here.
Vitaly Kaloev now
Since 2008, Vitaly Kaloev served as Deputy Minister of Construction in the Republic of North Ossetia. On his 60th birthday he retired. Despite the fact that the tragedy over Lake Boden occurred in 2002, this terrible event is still remembered.
On April 7, 2017, the film “Consequences” was released, based on real events, in which the role of Vitaly Kaloev is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The city of Columbus, Ohio was chosen as the location. The main character's name and life story have been changed. In the American drama his name is Victor, and he is an emigrant from Russia
Vitaly himself admits in an interview that he was dissatisfied with the famous actor’s performance: according to him, Arnold seeks to evoke pity among the audience, which contradicts Kaloev’s worldview.
On April 13, 2017, Channel One aired the program “Let Them Talk,” dedicated to the terrible tragedy and memory of the victims. In the summer of 2018, NTV dedicated the program “New Russian Sensations: Vitaly Kaloev” to the tragedy of the Ossetian architect. Confessions of an Avenger."
“Let them talk” - “Tragedy over Lake Constance. 15 years later"
Russian cinema also could not ignore the story of Vitaly Kaloev. Sarik Andreasyan became the director of the drama “Unforgiven”, in which the main character was presented on the screen by Dmitry Nagiyev. The premiere took place on September 27, 2018. The leading actor himself considers this work the best in his creative career.
2018 film "Unforgiven" - trailer
The film also stars Rosa Khairullina, Mikhail Gorevoy, and Irina Bezrukova. At the first open film festival "Crystal Source", which took place in Essentuki, the film received 3 awards.
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