ATCO murdered?
 

Saw this elsewhere... Anyone hear anything? Sad...

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Some sad news coming out of Switzerland:

The flight controller who has been blamed for the collision between a UPS 757 and a Tupolev 154 in 2002 over Germany has been stabbed and killed in front of his house. Police is not yet sure if it has got anything to do with the accident in 2002.....

They just reported it on the German morning news but without any details, only that which you already wrote.... I'm sure there will be more reported during the day.... :(

Westy

This is a straight translation of a newswire describing the episode. It was taken from the online edition of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-posten:

"A 36 year old Danish ATC, who lives and works in Switzerland was stabbed to death on Tuesday.

According to the police an unidentified man called on the Dane in his home in the suburbs of Zürich. A heated argument ensued, which culminated with the ATC being fatally injured from several knife stabs to his body.

On the night before Wednesday police were intensively searching for a dark-haired male in his early fifties speaking a coarse German.

The unnamed Dane worked in the service of Swiss ATC company Skyguide, which is responsible for parts of German airspace bordering Switzerland.

In July of 2002 the ATC was alone on duty when a Boeing 757 freight plane collided with a Russian Tupolev 154 plane carrying 69 passengers the majority of whom being Russian minors en route to a holiday in Spain. The collision happened at an altitude of 11 kilometers above Überlingen near the Bodensee between Switzerland and Germany.

The accident resulted in 71 fatalities and a police spokesman said Tuesday that no conclusion had as yet been reached on whether the stabbing could be connected to the role played by the Danish ATC in this incident."

Source: http://www.jp.dk/udland/artikel:aid=2285068/

A very sad story indeed.

Just to let those of you who may be coming into Zürich/Kloten. Because of this tragic event and the shock, no doubt, felt by his colleagues, Skyguide has reduced traffic flow in and out by approx. 40% so as not to overstress the working ATCO at this time.

It is an absolute tragedy and it still seems unreal. I worked with the guy and he was a very decent and modest bloke. My thoughts are with his wife and three children.

http://www.skyguide.ch/scripts/asp/press_e.asp

Schock and fears of what's next can resume the feelings of many controllers in Europe.
Of course we do not know yet for sure it the murder is connected to the collision. But everyone at work cannot take this out of its mind of course.
Questions like :
How did his name and address become public ?
What does this mean for all of us now ?

The most ironical is that the final report of this collision is almost ready and was due to be made public in the next 2 months. The pre-version shows clearly the chain of event in which he was involved , and anyone who who have read the report would have known what was behind the real causes of that tragedy. And it was not that single individual !

Rest in peace, my friend , our toughts are with you and with your familly ( his wife is also a controller ) and with all the colleagues in Zurich and Geneva ( where he worked lately )

BBC News report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3484878.stm

Even if the death is connected, it is senseless as it does not bring any of the accident victims back to life.

Now that just sucks so much! (Sorry, can't be more creative).

As the has been no link between this unfortunate event and those of Überlingen, speculation will be rife. If can echo ATC Watchers thoughts, and not detracting from what has happened, there will be many aviation professionals who will be shocked by this.

Band of Brothers
 

My thoughts go out to his family

Best Wishes.

On the question of how his name and address became public, obviously I have no idea in this case, but people should be aware that in a UK criminal court (which is public, and often attended by the press) the first thing that happens in all proceedings is that the defendant is identified by name, DOB and address.

Naturally there are procedures to have this identification in camera if this is thought necessary, but the default is that it is public.

Just a thought for anyone who finds themselves in such a siutuation.

Timothy

the day after the überlingen desaster, the biggest newspaper in Switzerland named his initials and the village he was living in, and they mentionned his nationality. With help of the internet phone directory, it was a matter of seconds to find his address. just typed the village and profession, and i got 12 entries. One of them sounded "nordic".

So, never mention your profesion, unless really necessary.

my thoughts are with his family...

al

SkyGuide controller murdered in ZRH
 

The 36 year-old air traffic controller P.N. who was on duty as a Tupolew and a DHL-Boeing collided on July 1st. '02 above the German city of Ueberlingen has been murdered yesterday in Zurich, said the police of the Kanton.

A man in his fifties with a slavic accent came to his doorsteep and stabbed him to death. The Skyguide employee died on the spot. He was married and had three children.

The police did not comment on a possible link between the murder and the July '02 crash above Ueberlingen. 71 people died, among them a number of children flown from Moscow to spend their holidays in Spain.

The police of the Kanton of Zurich asked the population to come forward with informations, if any available. A lawyer for the crash victims said that the litigation is underway and that in the course of the negociation "nothing abnormal" came into light.

The murdered Skyguide employee had returned to work some time after the crash, but was not anymore acting as an air traffic controller.

My sincerest condolences go out to his wife (who was a witness)and family.
These poor people went through so much already and now this!!

Rest in Peace
 

May the gentleman rest in peace, condolences to his family. I am sure he controlled me many times safely and professionally.

SF

This is indeed VERY disturbing. Makes everything else somehow unimportant. Condolences to his family. This must have significant implications for all of us who work in safety critical professions. There is ALWAYS an error chain, I look forward to seeing the report.

How very sad

Crikey! This has HUGE implications for all those of us who have this kind of responsibility in their job. Does it now mean that if a pilot or an ATCO is implicated in an accident such as this that they will now have to be provided with a new identity and something approaching 'witness protection'?

What measures will the ATC employers now be forced to take to protect the identities of controllers involved in serious incidents? What measures will the Press take to ensure that that confidentiality is not breached? Or will the unscrupulous find a way in as they always seem to?

If the final report implicates apparent failings in the fitness of equipment at Skyguide on that evening to do the task (phone and radar outages), how does this square with the ATCO involved paying for his mistake with his life when it was not entirely his fault?

A sad day for us all, and it really makes you think about what responsibility we have. Let's hope this was a one-off tragedy and not a trend of taking revenge for professional errors.:eek:

@ASFKAP
 

There are many Danish controllers in Zurich, both in ACC and APP/TWR.

Absolutely appalling and, more to the point, very very sad news.

I hope those that are responsible are dealt with in a swift and just way.

Even not so prominent businessmen in Russia have personal protection. Consider that only relatively wealthy Russians could have afforded to send their children abroad on holidays. While such a nasty outcome could not easily have been envisaged, in hindsight, it looks inevitable.

I am sure most ATCOs when reading about incidents think there but for the grace of God go I.
The gentleman was I am sure far more punishing on himself than anyone else could have been.
He never deserved this.
My deepest condolences to his family friends and colleagues.
May he finally rest in peace