Crash costs Russian town 52 of its children
UFA, Russia (AP) – They were the chosen children, standout athletes or students with the best grades, selected to travel and represent their Muslim region on a trip to the Spanish coast away from their homes in this industrial and oil-refining city in the heart of Russia. Instead, the Russian republic of Bashkortostan mourned the loss of its brightest youngsters after 52 children and their five adult escorts died when their chartered plane collided with a cargo jet Monday night in southern Germany. All 12 crew members of the Russian Tu-154 jet were also killed, as were the two pilots of the cargo plane.
Flags few at half-staff Tuesday evening outside the government building, now a crisis center for victims’ families, overlooking the White River that flows through the regional capital of Ufa. Three days of mourning have been declared in Bashkortostan.
Parents who were planning to welcome their children back after their 14-day trip to the Spanish coast south of Barcelona are now filling out visa applications and getting their passports in order so they can travel to Germany.
“They just want to see the place where (their children) spent their last moments,” said Bashkortostan’s deputy prime minister, Khalyaf Ishmuratov.
With the remains of the plane scattered widely, he said most parents had given up hope of bringing their children’s bodies home.
Instead, they want to have at least a piece of earth from the crash site to remember them by.
Doctors in white coats huddled around relatives of the victims at the crisis center, where workers used a roomful of typewriters to complete visa applications. One physician rushed to check a woman’s blood pressure as she slumped over in tears. An ambulance stood ready outside.
Two women huddled Tuesday evening outside the building, comforting each other in a tight embrace. When asked about their loss, one woman who declined to give her name could only answer, “What is there to say?”
Along with the blank stares of disbelief, however, there was also anger at suggestions that the Russian pilots were to blame for the collision. Swiss air traffic control initially said the Russian pilots had responded slowly to commands and only began to descend after repeated requests. Swiss officials later conceded that they told the Russian crew to reduce altitude less than a minute before the collision.
Mikhail Startsov lost his 14-year-old granddaughter, Dasha Kozlova, in the accident, and was having his picture taken with a digital camera to go with his German visa application.
He praised the crew of the aircraft and said air traffic controllers were at fault for letting the planes get so close.
“It is absolutely incomprehensible to me,” he said.
Local official Ishmuratov claimed that Russians were being made scapegoats because Europeans are hesitant to admit a mistake and further scare passengers away from flying when they are already choosing to stay home after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The trip to Spain had been supported by UNESCO and would have included visits to Spanish schools as well as a holiday at the beach, Ishmuratov said.
The children were due to stay at the 980-room, beachside Estival Park hotel complex at Vila-Seca, 55 miles south of Barcelona.
The four-star hotel, 21/2 miles from Universal’s Port Aventura theme park, is host to many Russian tourists annually.
Now, Ishmuratov is organizing a charter of another Tu-154 jet paid for by the local government to take children’s relatives to the crash site.
Also on board the flightwill be four psychologists, two doctors and two translators.
The local government has also pledged to pay for the burial of crash victims.