Lake Constance Goes to Trial

Yesterday, ITAR-TASS ran the following…

2002 air crash compensations to be set after Skyguide staff trial.
07.05.2007, 19.01
 
 GENEVA, May 7 (Itar-Tass) — The question of compensation payments to the 120 relatives of July 2002 air disaster over Germany’s Lake Boden will be decided after the trial of eight staff of Switzerland’s Skyguide air traffic control company, thought to be responsible for the incident.

The decision was made by Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Tribunal earlier on Monday.

A Russian Tupolev-154 passenger jet of the Bashkirian Airlines collided with a Boeing-747 cargo jet of the DHL delivery company on the night from July 1 to 2, 2002. Seventy-one passengers, including 49 children on the way to a holiday resort in Spain died.

Investigation has found out that the blame for the disaster must be placed on Skyguide air traffic controllers and technical personnel, who failed to take the proper measures to ensure safety within the area of the company’s responsibility.

Eight Skyguide staff will be put on trial in Beulah on May 15. The prosecution believes they were responsible for professional negligence, which resulted in the heavy loss of human life, and demands prison sentences ranging 15 to six months.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Skyguide in December 2006 acknowledged its responsibility for the disaster and volunteered to pay compensations to the victims’ relatives. No details were disclosed, though.

Last January 120 relatives of the air crash victims filed formal lawsuits with Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Tribunal demanding compensations.

At their request the procedure of considering the lawsuits and the making of decisions as to the form and size of compensations were postponed until the trial of Skyguide personnel has ended. 
  

Factually wrong? You bet. Indeed, wrong on so many levels….  More to come on a later post. In the mean time, fans of the truth need to make their voices heard.

–Dave

Peter Nielsen, the SkyGuide air traffic controller on duty during the midair, was murdered in front of his home in this buliding by a relative of some of the accident victims.