Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloyev (, ; , ; born 15 January 1956) is a Russian former architect and convicted murderer who was found guilty of the premeditated killing of an air traffic controller after his family died aboard BAL Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, which collided with DHL International Aviation ME Flight 611 over Überlingen, Germany, on 1 July 2002.
Kaloyev held Peter Nielsen (16 August 1967 – 24 February 2004), the sole air traffic controller in Switzerland who was handling traffic the night of the collision, responsible. In 2004, Kaloyev travelled to the Swiss town of Kloten, where he killed Nielsen, who had since retired from air traffic work.
Later, after his release from prison, Kaloyev was appointed deputy minister of construction of North Ossetia–Alania. In 2016, upon retirement from the local Ossetian government, Kaloyev was awarded the highest regional medal by that government, the medal "To the Glory of Ossetia". The medal is awarded for the highest achievements, improving the living conditions of the inhabitants of the region, for educating the younger generation and maintaining law and order.
Background
Vitaly Kaloyev had lost his wife Svetlana Kaloyeva () and two children, 10-year-old Konstantin () and 4-year-old Diana () in the Überlingen mid-air collision in 2002.
Yuri Kaloyev, the brother of Vitaly Kaloyev, reported that he suffered a nervous breakdown following the loss of his family. Vitaly Kaloyev participated in the search for the bodies and located a broken pearl necklace owned by his daughter, Diana. He also found her body, which was intact, as some trees had broken her fall. Svetlana's body landed in a corn field, while Konstantin's body hit the asphalt in front of an Überlingen bus shelter.
Kaloyev spent the first year after the accident lingering at the graves of his family and building a shrine to them in his home. At the memorial service for the first anniversary of the tragedy, he asked the head of Skyguide about the possibility of meeting the controller who had been responsible for the disaster, but he received no response. Kaloyev then hired a Moscow private investigator to find Nielsen's address outside Zürich, before travelling to the former air traffic controller's home in Kloten.
Murder of Peter Nielsen
On the afternoon of 24 February 2004, he set off for Nielsen's house. A neighbour spotted Kaloyev and asked what he wanted. He waved a piece of paper with Nielsen's name on it. The neighbour pointed to Nielsen's front door, but instead of knocking, Kaloyev sat down in the garden.
Nielsen, who had lived in Switzerland since 1995, spotted the intruder, went outside and asked what he wanted. His children accompanied him into the garden as well, but his wife tried to call them back; she was still inside when she heard a "kind of scream". Nielsen was stabbed several times and died of his injuries a few minutes later in the presence of his wife and three children.
Answering questions from the judge, Kaloyev said the plane crash above Lake Constance had ended his life. He said his children were the youngest on board Flight 2937, so there was no need for him to identify the bodies. Kaloyev said he was crushed by the loss of his family: "I have been living in the cemetery for almost two years, sitting beside their graves". Kaloyev wanted Nielsen to apologize to him for the death of his family. Kaloyev offered no explanation for why he brought the weapon with him on a peaceful errand and initially denied the killing entirely.
Trial
On 26 October 2005, Kaloyev was convicted of the premeditated killing (a charge that falls between murder and manslaughter in Switzerland) of Nielsen and sentenced to eight years in prison. In 2006, the Swiss Supreme Court reduced his sentence to five years and three months. In 2007, he was paroled by the court, but the prosecution appealed the decision.
On 23 August 2007, the court accepted the appeal, and Kaloyev remained in prison. On 8 November 2007, Kaloyev was released from prison on parole after having served two-thirds of his sentence, a total of three and a half years.
Return
Returning to his home in North Ossetian city of Vladikavkaz, Kaloyev was met with enthusiastic crowds who cheered him as a hero. Members of the youth movement Nashi displayed a banner which read: "You are a real man" in Ossetian.