Russian pilot trade union to have legal proceedings with Swiss officials

The Russian pilot trade union is going to initiate suits against Swiss officials; the latter are accused of untimely publication of unreliable information about the TU-154 and Boeing-757 crash over Germany. RosBusinessConsulting informs, the trade union will attract foreign specialists for a detailed investigation of the tragedy.

Skyguide officials accused Russian pilots of the collision, however, according to the President of the Russian pilot trade union, Miroslav Boichuk, “the fact that the two planes remained in the same zone, at the same altitude for about three minutes is nonsense!” Only Skyguide is responsible for this fact.

Director general of JSC Aeroflot – Russian airlines Valery Okulov, as quoted by RosBusinessConsulting, shares the opinion of the pilot trade union: “Even before the investigation, right after the tragedy, Western sources declared at once that Russian TU-154 crew had not been effective enough, orders from the air traffic controllers were carried out with a delay. Unfortunately, the negative opinion that TU-154 crew was not effective enough (at that, opinion is also rather negative as concerning Russian aviation on the whole) is very strong abroad.”

In Okulov’s words, “all debates on what is more important, the collision alert system or direct commands from the air traffic controllers, divert us from the most important thing: no tragedies of this kind must occur at all.” Air traffic controllers should pull planes apart already eight minutes before any possible flying paths intersection, not exceed the time permitted for a move instead of it.

It is not ruled out that the initiative of the Russian pilot trade union became a response to recent statements of the German pilot trade union; the statements enjoyed a wide response in Europe. German pilots say that the TU-154 crew was to have obligatorily followed instructions from the automatic collision alert system. Instead of it, the crew followed instructions from the air traffic controllers, although, such commands should be treated as recommendations, not more. Thus, the principle of non-interference in the automatics’ work was broken, and the tragedy occurred.

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/07/11/44049.html