Vitaly Kaloyev

Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloyev (Russian: Виталий Константинович Калоев, born 15 January 1956) is a convicted murderer, former architect and has become a deputy minister of construction of North Ossetia–Alania following his prison release. His family died aboard Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, which collided with DHL Flight 611 over Überlingen, Germany on 1 July 2002.

Peter Nielsen, an air traffic controller handling traffic when the collision occurred, was freed from any responsibility in the followed inquest and had retired from air traffic work afterwards. However, Kaloyev held Nielsen responsible, and in 2004 he travelled to the Swiss town of Kloten and stabbed him to death.

Background

Skyguide memorial to the aviation accident and murder of Peter Nielsen.

Vitaly Kaloyev, lost his wife Svetlana Kaloyeva (Светлана Калоева) and two children, 10-year-old Konstantin Kaloyev (Константин Калоев) and 4-year-old Diana Kaloyeva (Диана Калоева) on a tragical midair collision two years earlier.

Yuri Kaloyev, the brother of Vitaly Kaloyev, reported that the man suffered a nervous breakdown following the loss of his family. ^[1] Vitaly Kaloyev participated in the search for the bodies and located a broken pearl necklace owned by his daughter, Diana. He also found her body, which was intact as the trees having broken her fall. Svetlana's body landed in a corn field, and Konstantin's body hit asphalt in front of an Überlingen bus shelter.^[2][3]

Kaloyev spent the first year after the accident lingering at the graves of his family and building a shrine to them in his home. At the memorial service for the first anniversary of the tragedy, he asked the head of Skyguide about the possibility of meeting the controller who had been responsible for the disaster, but received no response. Kaloyev then hired a Moscow private investigator to find Nielsen's address outside Zürich, before travelling to the former air traffic controller's home in Kloten.

Murder of Peter Nielsen

On the afternoon of February 24, he set off for Nielsen's house. A neighbour spotted Kaloyev and asked what he wanted. He waved a piece of paper with Nielsen's name on it. The neighbour pointed to Nielsen's front door, but instead of knocking, Kaloyev sat down in the garden.^[4]

Nielsen, who had lived in Switzerland since 1995, spotted the intruder, went outside and asked what he wanted. His children accompanied him into the garden as well, but his wife tried to call them back — still inside when she heard a "kind of scream" — Nielsen died of his injuries a few minutes later in the presence of his wife and three children.^[5]

Answering questions from the judge, Kaloyev said the plane crash above Lake Constance had ended his life. He said his children were the youngest on board Flight 2937, so there was no need for him to identify the bodies. Kaloyev said he was crushed by the loss of his family: "I have been living in the cemetery for almost two years, sitting behind their graves," he said.

Kaloyev presented a document received from a law firm in Hamburg dated 11 November 2003. It was an amicable agreement in which Skyguide offered him 60,000 Swiss francs for the death of his wife and 50,000 francs for the death of each of his two children. In return, Skyguide asked Kaloyev to decline any claims to the company. The document infuriated the man: he decided to meet the company director Alan Rossier and Nielsen in person.

"Apparently he did not expect that he would have to answer for the results of his work," Kaloyev said. "He murmured something to me. Then I showed him some pictures of my children and said: "They were my children. What would you feel if you saw your children in coffins? I was infuriated about Skyguide's initiative to haggle over my dead children."

Kaloyev wanted Nielsen to apologize to him for the death of his family. "He hit me on the hand, when I was holding the envelope with the photographs of my children. I only remember that I had a very disturbing feeling, as if the bodies of my children were turning over in their graves" he said.

Kaloyev offered no explanation of why he brought the murder weapon with him on a peaceful errand and has denied the killing.^[6]

Trial

On 26 October 2005, Kaloyev was convicted of murder and sentenced to eight years in prison.^[7] In 2007, he was paroled by the court, but the prosecution appealed the decision.^[8]

On 23 August 2007, the court accepted the appeal, so that Kaloyev remained in prison.^[9] On 8 November 2007, Kaloyev was released from prison, because his mental condition was not sufficiently considered in the initial sentence.^[10]

Return

Returning to his home in North Ossetian city of Vladikavkaz, Kaloyev was met with enthusiastic crowds who cheered him as a hero. Members of the youth movement Nashi were standing with the accompanying acclamation: “You are the real man.”^[11]

“Kaloyev is a hero. Those guilty of causing air crashes often remain unpunished. Such a radical punishment is the only way to make them carry responsibility for their crimes,” Yusko said. Many Russians shared that sentiment, and believed that he committed "a heroic deed avenging for the death of his family."^[12] The positive reaction and appointment in Russia was met with a negative reception in Switzerland.^[13]

The Swiss government asked Kaloyev to repay the costs of his incarceration, about US$157,000. Kaloyev has refused to do so. When Kaloyev travelled to Germany to attend the 10th anniversary memorial, he was detained by German authorities, saying that he was on a Swiss watch list. Russian consular authorities protested the man's detainment. The Germans released Kaloyev after Russian diplomats agreed to accompany him.^[13]

References

External links

• Mördade – nu är han minister - Aftonbladet (in Swedish)
• Stack, Megan K. (2 February 2008). "Russian's revenge begets rewards". Los Angeles Times. 
• Russia hails Vitaly Kaloyev a hero
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080421062138/http://www.rso-a.ru:80/vlast/head/activity/detail.php?ID=1354