The pilot of a Russian passenger plane that collided in mid-air with a cargo aircraft over southern Germany, killing at least 71 people, was probably to blame for the crash, a state official said on Tuesday.
Quoting details given by Swiss air traffic controllers tracking the planes, Baden Wuerttemberg Transport Minister Ulrich Mueller said the Bashkirian Airlines pilot had failed to respond to repeated calls to change altitude.
”So we have to suppose that the pilot made a mistake,” Mueller said at a press conference.
The Tu-154 with 69 people aboard collided with a DHL Boeing 757 transport plane cargo and two crew at an altitude of around 11 000 metres above Lake Konstanz on the German-Swiss border shortly before midnight on Monday.
Mueller said the pilot of the cargo plane had tried to take evasive action but was unable to avoid the crash.
Carlo Bernasconi, the head of the Skyguide company charged with air traffic in Switzerland, would not confirm Mueller’s statement but said that an inquiry was underway.
Mueller said the Russian plane’s flight recorder had been found and that no dangerous materials were being transported in the cargo plane. ”So there is no danger to the population,” he said. – Sapa-AFP