Man ‘can’t remember’ killing controller

A RUSSIAN architect has told investigators he may have stabbed to death an air traffic controller he blamed for the deaths of his wife and children in a mid-air plane collision, but could not remember doing so.

Vitaly Kaloyev told investigators he went to Peter Nielsen's house seeking an apology, said a Zurich district prosecutor's statement.

Mr Kaloyev spoke to Mr Nielsen, but then lost control and could remember no more about what happened. "Maybe he killed him," the statement said.

Danish-born Peter Nielsen, aged 36, died on February 24 outside his home near Zurich Airport from multiple stab wounds. Police arrested Mr Kaloyev at a nearby hotel the following day. Until now, he had maintained his innocence.

Mr Kaloyev's wife, son and daughter were among 71 people mostly Russian schoolchildren who died when a Russian airliner collided with a DHL cargo plane over southern Germany on July 1, 2002.

Nielsen was alone in the Zurich control room at the time. He gave less than a minute's warning to the two planes that they were getting too close.

Preliminary accident reports in Germany said the controller then told the Russian plane to descend, countermanding the jetliner's onboard collision-avoidance system, which was demanding that it climb.

The pilot followed Nielsen's instructions sending the jetliner straight into the DHL plane, which was also descending in accordance with its collision-avoidance equipment.

Mr Kaloyev, aged 48, from the city of Vladikavkaz in the Caucasus Mountains, was building a private house in Spain at the time of the disaster, and his wife and children were on their way to visit him. He visited the crash site and found his daughter's body almost intact.

He has been held in a psychiatric clinic since shortly after his arrest because of fears he might try to commit suicide.

German authorities have yet to release their full report on the collision.