Midair crash pilots both said they were descending

THE pilots of two planes that collided at 35,000 feet last week, killing all 71 on board, indicated to air traffic control seconds before the crash that both were descending in desperate attempts to avoid each other, German investigators said yesterday.

The cockpit voice recorder of the Bashkirian Airlines plane revealed that the Russian pilot acknowledged an air traffic controller's order to descend about 30 seconds before the crash, said Odo Zboralski, a spokesman for the German flight accident investigation office. Some 15 seconds before, however, the DHL International pilot had told ground control over his radio that he was following a cockpit computer warning to descend.

"But there was no acknowledgment from the ground station to (the DHL plane), it's just on the tape and we are not so sure if the controller really got that message," Zboralski said.

Flight voice recorder information released by the German agency showed that about 45 seconds before the July 1 crash, the planes' automatic warning systems simultaneously told pilots to take emergency manoeuvres, directing the Russian plane to climb and the DHL International cargo plane to descend.

But one second later, Swiss air traffic control which was in charge even though the planes were in southern German air space told the Russian plane to descend. Faced with conflicting orders, the Russian pilot hesitated until the order was repeated by air traffic control 14 seconds later.

The Russian then acknowledged in English that he had received the air traffic controller's order, Zboralski said. He did not mention his cockpit warning system's order to climb.