Air traffic agency staff charged over plane crash
Eight employees of the Swiss air traffic control company have been charged with negligent homicide in a 2002 plane collision that killed 71 people over southern Germany, the district attorney in nearby Winterthur said today.
All of the employees, whose identities were undisclosed, have denied any responsibility for the collision of a Russian passenger jet and a cargo plane in the airspace under the control of Skyguide, said the statement by District Attorney Bernhard Hecht.
The victims included 45 Russian schoolchildren headed for a holiday in Spain. Hecht said the eight were charged in the District Court of Buelach on Friday.
They also have been charged with negligent disruption of public transportation.
Hecht said the eight should be given suspended sentences of between six and 15 months in jail.
The statement said the eight defendants were accused of organisational shortcomings in connection with the leaving of a single air traffic controller in charge of the area of the crash on the night of July 1, 2002.
They were also accused of providing insufficient information to him about technical work in progress that decisively affected the communications and radar systems.
