Two planes collide over southern Germany; up to 150 people believed killed
Canadian Press
Monday, July 01, 2002
FRANKFURT (AP) - A Russian passenger plane and a Boeing-made cargo aircraft collided over southern Germany late Monday, killing up to 150 people, police said. Rescue workers have already recovered bodies of some of the victims. The Tupolev 154 and the Boeing 757 freight plane crashed into each other at 11:43 p.m. , said Wolfgang Wenzel, a spokesman for police in the city of Tuebingen.
Burning wreckage was scattered across several kilometres near Uberlingen, 215 kilometres south of Frankfurt and just north of Lake Constance.
Dozens of people called police stations with sightings of a large ball of fire in the sky at the time of the crash, Wenzel said early Tuesday.
He said that the Boeing was carrying just two pilots, both of whom were believed to have been killed.
An air traffic controller from the airport in Frankfurt said the Tupolev was a passenger plane for Bashkirian Airlines. Bashkiria is a republic within the Russian federation. Police said the plane was en route from Moscow to Barcelona.
The air controller identified the freight aircraft as flying for package delivery service DHL. It had taken off in Bahrain and was headed for Brussels. There was no immediate answer to telephone calls to DHL headquarters in San Francisco or Bashkirian Airlines in Moscow.
Both planes were believed to have been flying at about 10,970 metres, Wenzel said.
Collisions in the air between large aircraft are extremely rare, especially at the high cruising altitudes where Monday's crash reportedly occurred.
Most aircraft carry transponders, devices that relay a plane's identification, altitude and speed to ground controllers. Controllers use this information to track aircraft and keep them at a safe distance from each other. In addition, equipment on many aircraft can read the transponder signals of nearby planes, painting an electronic map to show pilots the aircraft around them.
Many planes also carry collision avoidance equipment that can automatically pull the plane away from an impending collision, or sound an alarm and tell the pilot which way to turn to avoid a crash.
Transponders must be regularly calibrated and checked to make sure they are functioning properly.
