Victims' relatives visit German crash site
Relatives of 45 Russian schoolchildren killed when their holiday jet collided with a cargo plane over southern Germany were today visiting the crash site on the Swiss border.
A special flight was due to arrive in Ueberlingen at around 9am (8am Irish time) from Ufa, the industrial city in Russia’s eastern Bashkortostan region where the children were some of the highest-achieving students who went to elite schools.
Parents were told not to expect to find their children’s bodies, given the violence of the collision that happened hours after the group departed for an end-of-school trip at a Spanish beach resort.
The students were among 71 people killed when the Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 jet and a Boeing 757 flown by DHL International delivery service collided at 35,000 feet on Monday night.
The British cargo plane pilot, father-of-three Capt Paul Phillips, 47, was killed in the crash.
At a tearful meeting in Ufa, the families asked whether a Muslim clergyman would be available at the crash site and whether they would be able to buy flowers in Germany. Many people in Bashkortostan are Muslim.
German officials said counsellors would be on hand to help the families and that they would not have to look at the remains of their loved ones.
They were asked to bring dental records and pictures to help in the difficult process of identification.
Police are not sure they will be able to find or identify all the dead.
The collision scattered bodies and debris over a 20-mile area and 1,200 workers were taking part in the salvage operation.
A 30-member team of counsellors was set up to help rescue workers and some of the more than 150 residents who reported finding bodies or wreckage.
The crash is under international investigation amid conflicting accounts of who is to blame.
Swiss air traffic controllers were guiding the planes at the time of the crash.
Controversy grew yesterday when Swiss officials said that a collision-warning system at their tower had been turned off for maintenance and only one controller was on duty while another was taking a break.
There were conflicting accounts on whether rules allowed only one controller when the system was switched off, which is usually done at times of light traffic.
Only five planes were in Swiss airspace at the time the collision happened.
Aviation officials have also questioned statements by Swiss controllers that the 50 seconds of warning they gave the Russian pilot to descend out of the path of the cargo jet was enough.
The Russian pilot heeded the command to descend after a second warning. The cargo jet was equipped with a radar collision avoidance system that also warned its pilots to descend.
The Russians have angrily criticised the controllers and defended the pilot of the Bashkirian Airlines plane as an experienced aviator.
President Vladimir Putin said he telephoned German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and received assurances that German officials - who are examining the flight recorders - would "do everything necessary to carry out an objective investigation".
