At least 95 feared dead in plane collision over Germany

02/07/2002| IslamWeb

At least 95 people were feared dead after a Russian-made plane travelling from Moscow to Barcelona collided with a cargo plane bound for Brussels over southern Germany late on Monday. Officials said on Tuesday the two aircraft collided in mid-air at 2140 GMT (2340 local time) above Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border, spreading debris over a wide area and setting a number of buildings including a school on fire. The passenger plane, a Russian-made Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev 154, was believed to be carrying 93 people, and the Boeing 757 cargo plane two people, police said.

NO EVIDENCE OF DEATHS ON GROUND

"There's no evidence at the moment of any deaths on the ground," police spokesman Gerhard Schneider said.
German television showed the charred tail of the Russian plane in a darkened field. Police and rescue workers searched through the field with flashlights.

The airline, based in the Russia's oil-rich Muslim Republic of Bashkortostan, was one of many to emerge from state airliner Aeroflot after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It relies mainly on a fleet of Tu-154 planes, one of the most common Russian planes used for medium-range flights.

The two planes were flying at an altitude of 12,000 metres above the town of Ueberlingen on the northwest end of Lake Constance when they struck each other, officials said.

A spokeswoman for German flight control said one of two reasons would explain such a crash: either ground controllers had entered incorrect data for the flight paths, or one of the two planes had not followed the approved flight path.

German officials said both planes were under Swiss flight control at the time of the accident.

PHOTO CAPTION

An undated picture of a DHL Boeing 757 freighter similar to the one that collided mid-air with a Russian-made Tupolev 154 over Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border on July 1, killing at least 95 people on board the two aircraft. REUTERS/Handout