A Russian charter jet filled with youngsters headed for a vacation in Spain slammed into a cargo plane midair yesterday, killing more than 70 people and scattering flaming wreckage on the shores of a picturesque lake in southern Germany.
All aboard were believed dead after the collision at about 11,000m. "At such an altitude, it would be a wonder if anyone survived," said Wolfgang Wenzel, a police spokesman for Baden-Wuerttemberg said.
Din Uzhin, a group leader for the students -- many of whom were the children of high-ranking officials in the Russian republic of Bashkorstostan -- said he was supposed to have flown with the group but didn't get a Spanish visa so was left behind in Moscow.
"The parents of the children are calling nonstop asking whether I know anything about the fate of their children," he said yesterday. "And I have to say time and again: Your children were on that plane."
Swiss air traffic controllers said that once the plane entered their airspace they told it to descend, but that when it did, it was too late.
But Sergei Rudakov, the head of Domodedovo airport, denied the pilot of the Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 had caused the collision late Monday night and suggested it was perhaps the other plane's pilot. He spoke on a report broadcast on Russia's RTR television.
Smoldering wreckage from the crash was strewn across a 30km-wide area in the low rolling hills around Lake Constance.
Bodies were covered with black plastic sheeting when found, as authorities worked to set up a makeshift morgue.
More than 800 rescue workers were searching the area around the lake, which is shared by Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Investigators had recovered 12 bodies yesterday and had located the flight data recorder from the Tu-154 and pieces of both aircraft in yards, fields and along roads. Even though none of the parts were believed to have fallen into Lake Constance, 22 boats patrolled the waters looking for flotsam or telltale jet fuel slicks.
The children aboard the Tu-154 were the best students at a UNESCO-affiliated school in Ufa, the capital of Bashkorstostan. They were on their way to Costa Dorada, Spain for a holiday, sponsored by UNESCO and the local government.
Russian officials at the emergency situations ministry and the tour agency that helped organize the trip said eight of the children were younger than 12 and that 44 were between 12 and 16 years old.
The Boeing 757 belonged to the DHL package delivery service.
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