On July 1, 2002 a Bashkirian Airlines passenger plane and a DHL cargo jet collided over the German countryside. Eyewitnesses reported seeing fire in the sky, a noise like thunder stirred the sleeping in their beds, and any desperate hopes for survivors were quickly abandoned. Seventy-one people lost their lives, most of them Russian children on a UNESCO-sponsored trip to Barcelona. Architect Vitaly Kaloev, a Russian citizen then living in Spain, lost his entire family: wife Svetlana, and two children, Diana, four, and Konstantin, ten (do NOT Google pictures of that family if you value your composure, the children are so… so… Well, you know how it goes).
In 2004, Kaloyev traveled to Switzerland, demanding a personal apology from Skyguide, the air traffic control company that admitted responsibility for the crash. Unsuccessful in his attempt to meet with then-Skyguide bigwig Alain Rossier (how dare some guy who lost his entire family ask for an audience with His Holiness the CEO? – That’s the way the world works, it seems), Kaloyev traveled to the home of Peter Nielsen, the only man on air traffic control duty at the time of the crash (Nielsen’s partner had gone on break). An altercation ensued, and Nielsen was stabbed to death in front of his family.
Although convicted of murder, Vitaly Kaloyev was recently released by Switzerland’s highest court. His sentence was shortened, and he was then cited as having completed two-thirds of it already. Last week, Kaloyev got a raucous welcome in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. People who had never met him held up signs reading “You’re a real human being!” Kaloyev’s first order of business was to visit the family graves.
The Russian press has called what happened in 2002 “murder.” I don’t quite agree. The crash was not a premeditated killing; it was manslaughter that occurred through negligence and, let’s face it, circumstances. The murder came later, in 2004 – the chain of events having been aided and abetted by the gross insensitivity of officials who may very well have reacted differently had one of the downed planes been carrying Western children (PLENTY of people still assume that the Russian pilots were responsible for the crash – probably swilling vodka in the cockpit, hardy har har!). This insensitivity may very well have made Peter Nielsen a prime target for Kaloyev’s rage. Swiss author Ariene Perret, for example, argues that Nielsen was turned into “a scapegoat” by his company.
“I just wanted an apology,” Kaloyev stated at his trial. He further claimed he didn’t want to kill Nielsen, despite the fact that he brought along a knife. Riiight. Can we believe this man? Does it even matter anymore?
In spite of reports to the contrary, Russians are in fact split on whether or not Kaloyev is a “hero.” Some praise his “vendetta” – attributing it to an ethnic bloodlust (Kaloyev is Ossetian) that should not only be excused, but even celebrated. Others appear to simply identify with the horror he has suffered and obviously internalized, yet cannot justify what he did. Following Russia’s religious renaissance, it’s interesting to encounter people who feel deep sympathy for Kaloyev on both a personal and cultural level, yet ultimately point to the 10 Commandments to explain that Nielsen’s death was still a crime. Meanwhile, the fact that Kaloyev’s story has now inspired an orgy of nationalism in some political factions is both disgusting and predictable.
Grief, even when spoken about in the media and used as a rallying point, is still a deeply private matter – a kind of internal bleeding of the soul. In court, Kaloyev talked about staring at his children’s pictures: pictures of them as they were in life, and pictures of them in death. He spoke of camping out at the cemetery. He said that Diana and Konstantin were the smallest children on board the flight; they didn’t even need to be properly identified. As one of the first grieving relatives who arrived at the crash site, Kaloyev claimed to have spotted his daughter’s body himself. He spoke of not being able to look at the body of his wife.
Were Peter Nielsen’s children able to look at the body of their father?
The Nielsen family has kept a low profile after the killing. Undoubtedly, they fear more violence. This is all besides the fact that their lives have been changed, practically crossed-out, death initiating them into more death.
Yet the moral in this story is that there is no moral. Nothing to account for the banalities of this world: children scattered on the ground along with DHL packages, parents lost, the elemental thunder of applause as a knife comes down on more warm and vulnerable human flesh.
Ultimately, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to celebrate or even rationalize here. There can only be the dim hope that Vitaly Kaloyev, the Nielsens, and everyone else affected by the events of July 1, 2002 can find a way to keep on keeping on.
…Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
– John Donne
So sad. So senseless. And it’s awful when we try and reach for justice ourselves, too, and let our passions guide us. I feel horrible for both families.
This is so beautiful, Natalia. You’ve captured the ambiguity of Kaloyev’s actions perfectly.
Nothing else to say except ‘brava’.
A moving piece. Brilliant
I wonder if one of Peter Nielsen’s children would get away with gutting this guy in HIS front yard 15 years from now. I mean, the trauma of losing their father and then seeing his murderer be rewarded for it by the government would be just as traumatizing as losing one’s family in a plane crash.
The fact that so many people think this bastard is a hero is almost as horrifying as the plane crash that set all this in motion.