Aircraft crash in mid air

Fox News | 7/1/02

[Redcloak]

Fox news has an alert about two large aircraft involved in a mid-air crash over germany.

[Redcloak]

CNN now has this up in their site...

AP: A Boeing airliner and another plane collide in midair over southern Germany, a state official says. Details soon.

[jern]

FRANKFURT, Germany –– A Tupelev and a Boeing airliner collided over the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttember, a state official said early Tuesday. There was no immediate word on causalities

A spokesman for the interior ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the planes went down near the city of Sigmariegen, near Lake Constance.

[Marine Inspector]

Ping

[Redcloak]

MSNBC reporting...

Mid-air collision over Germany

Tupelev, Boeing jet crash

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES

FRANKFURT, Germany, July 1 — A Tupelev and a Boeing airliner collided in mid-air over Lake Constance in southern Germany, state official says.

[cmsgop]

Oh My Gosh!

[terilyn]

Fox News reported that an eyewitness said there were two huge fireballs in the sky and bodies all over the ground in his town.

[sam_paine]

Tu makes some pretty big aero-floaters, don't they?

Any word from other sources as to size?

[grimalkin]

Oh sh**. :(

[Redcloak]

I'm only seeing reports of them as "large".

[ChicagoRepublican]

When the Tupolev is mentioned I have to rule out terrorism. I don't want to be rash, but anyone who spent some time in Russia can back me up here that Russian airlines are a menace to their passengers and to other flights.

[headsonpikes]

Excellent posting work!!

[Redcloak]

AP now reporting...

JULY 01, 19:02 ET

Airliner, Plane Collide in Germany

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A Tupelev and a Boeing airliner collided over the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttember, a state official said early Tuesday. There was no immediate word on causalities

A spokesman for the interior ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the planes went down near the city of Sigmariegen, near Lake Constance.

No further information on the aircraft or passengers aboard was immediately available.

An eyewitness speaking to state German ARD television said he saw two large balls of fire in the sky. Another told the TV station he had seen bodies on the streets.

[cmsgop]

I see your point but it's ATC that could be the cause.

[Dog]

How did two passenger planes get that close to each other to collide in mid-air....these aren't piper cubs.

[YaYa123]

Is it correct to assume these are German planes? Does it mean both are Luftansa?

[Howlin]

Wow......how long has it been since we've had a mid-air collision? Or am I showing my age?

[widgysoft]

Three words: Air Traffic Control.

[Redcloak]

Another update from the AP...

JULY 01, 19:20 ET

Airliner, Plane Collide in Germany

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A Boeing airliner and another plane collided over the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a state official said early Tuesday. There was no immediate word on casualties.

A spokesman for the interior ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg said the planes went down near the city of Sigmariegen, near Lake Constance.

The official said the other plane was a Tupolev, but didn't elaborate. Internet sites describe the Tupolev as a Russian-built plane.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the planes, but it was possible they were carrying mostly freight.

Pieces of the aircraft were scattered for miles across the countryside, the spokesman said.

State German ARD television interviewed one man who described the crash as two large balls of fire in the sky.

No further information on the aircraft or passengers aboard was immediately available.

[Timesink]

When the Tupolev is mentioned I have to rule out terrorism. I don't want to be rash, but anyone who spent some time in Russia can back me up here that Russian airlines are a menace to their passengers and to other flights.

I dunno. It's kind of hard for one plane to intentionally hit the other when both are traveling at ~500MPH or more, isn't it?

[YaYa123]

"....FRANKFURT: Russian-built plane. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the planes, but it was possible they were carrying mostly freight. Pieces of the aircraft were scattered for miles across the countryside, the spokesman said. State German ARD television interviewed one man who described the crash as two large balls of fire in the sky. No further information on the aircraft or passengers aboard was immediately available."

© 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[ChicagoRepublican]

Not when the pilot of the Russian airliner decides to go to his bathroom and allow his 5 year old son have the controls. This happened before, and it resulted in a plane going down in Siberia.

[eno_]

Unless they were on approach AND ATC screwed up big time, a midair with two airliners is an astronomically improbable accident.

[toddst]

Three words: Air Traffic Control.

Prayers for the passengers, crews and their families. I do immediately wonder whether one plane may have been under "hostile" control? Guess we'll know soon enough what did happen.

[eno_]

That was one airplane. This was a collision. People are reasaonably wary of possible coverups.

[YaYa123]

CBS is breaking in with this news alert, mentioning "bodies in the street", but the anchor also repeats it's likely they were freight flights, not passenger, because of the late hour.

[Dog]

MSNBC is breaking it now..

[Mo1]

Fox News reported that an eyewitness said there were two huge fireballs in the sky and bodies all over the ground in his town.

OMG ....

[Redcloak]

The BBC doesn't have much more on this...

Monday, 1 July, 2002, 23:27 GMT 00:27 UK

Two planes collide over Germany

A passenger jet and a cargo plane have collided over Lake Constance on Germany's border with Switzerland.

Officials in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said a Tupolev and a Boeing 757 were involved in the crash.

The planes are reported to have gone down near the town of Sigmariegen, hitting a road by the lake.

A spokesman for the state government said it was feared there had been many casualties.

The state government said pieces of the planes had been found scattered for kilometres around the crash site.

An eyewitness told German state television that he saw two balls of fire in the sky.

[Dog]

One is a Boeing 757.....

[DoughtyOne]

Sigmaringen is 1.5 inch above Here

[Khepera]

Sigmariegen

[Dog]

Someone screwed up on this one big time..

[Mo1]

How the HELL do 2 planes collide in mid air like that???

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Guarantee it's the Topulev at fault.

[BossyRoofer]

Makes you wander if HARRPs on ATCs mind!!!!

[DoughtyOne]

   For Comparison

[Dog]

Bad weather maybe ....would love to know if rain is in the area or thunderstorms..

[terilyn]

Any time I've heard of a "near miss" regarding a mid-air collision it's always been attributed to air traffic controllers.

I'm no pilot and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so for anybody that knows, is it possible to get coordinates for a particular flight, (no - not an average joe, but somebody that could hack into a computer), and then set your own auto pilot to cross with those coordinates?

I honestly have no idea, I'm wondering.

[aristeides]

Quite likely the Tupolev pilot had difficulty communicating with the German air traffic controllers. The English of some of those Russian pilots can be pretty limited.

[Mo1]

I don't know either .. but someone F'd up BIG TIME

[boomop1]

Someones head is up, you know where, that's how.

[cmsgop]

and that 757 could be UPS they have a S#$t load of them.

[Shermy]

From ARD, web translation

______

Dead persons after aeroplane collision

Two aeroplanes have collided about Überlingen in Lake of Constance. Falling down, burning wreckage has arranged big damage according to police. Two corpses have been found according to the police in Constance. An eyewitness reported in the ARD of several dead person in the site of the crash.

A Tupolew Does 154 from Byelorussia should have collided with a Boeing 757. One engine takes 180 passengers, other 203 passengers. How much people(persons) were, however, aboard of both aeroplanes, is unclear.

At present a school, a farm and several houses burn.

[Redcloak]

Light rain is reported just north of there in Stuttgart...

[terilyn]

You've got that right. Let's hope it's an accidental f'up and not an intentional one.

Wasn't Germany one of the places where they have found a lot of terrorists?

Ok, I'll go take my tin foil hat off now and pray this was a horrible accident. While I'm doing that I'll pray for the families of those that died.

[aristeides]

Isn't Sigmaringen where that castle is that ended up housing Pétain, Laval, Céline, and a bunch of other French collaborators at the end of the war? Céline writes about that time in Castle to Castle.

[DoughtyOne]

Fox quoted some local stating that there were bodies in the streets. I don't know how accurate that was.

[JimSEA]

I will show mine too. The last one I recall was over the Grand Canion almost 45 years ago. There have been a number on the ground and taking off recently.