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Journalism of Courage
A collision-warning system at Zurich airport was out of service because of routine maintenance work at the time of Monday night8217;s mid-air collision between a Russian charter jet and a cargo plane in Swiss air-traffic-control space, officials said on Wednesday.
As an international investigation began, Swiss air-traffic-control officials also said one of two controllers took a break during the maintenance operation on the warning system, which alerts controllers to the danger of a collision.
Anton Maag, chief of the Zurich airport control tower, said Skyguideforbids leaving a lone controller on duty without the aid of the warning system. But one of his aides later said this rule does not apply at night.
Monday8217;s collision happened at 11:35 pm while the two jets were trying to descend to avoid each other over southern Germany. About 71 people were killed, the majority of them Russian schoolchildren heading for vacation in Spain.
Skyguide, the company in charge of Swiss air-traffic control, admitted on Tuesday that the lone controller on duty gave the Russian crew of the Tupolev 154 just 44 seconds warning to dive, even though the danger should have been apparent minutes ahead.
The Russian pilot flying the Bashkirian Airlines plane responded only on the second request 8212; 25 seconds before the collision.
