1976 Zagreb mid-air collision

45.892516.310555555556Koordinaten: 45 ° 53 ' 33 " N, 16 ° 18' 38" E

Enactment of the collision

The aircraft collision of Zagreb 10 September 1976 in the airspace concerned collided a British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC -9, the Inex Adria Airways. This was due to an overloaded airspace, combined with improper action and technical false readings in the air traffic control. 176 people died, including 107 German nationals.

In the air space over the time -aligned Yugoslavia, several airways crossed. This was associated with the problem of a strong stress on air traffic controllers, especially with the airspace over Zagreb. Within five years they had there previously registered 32 near- collisions.

Course

The British Trident was launched in London, which carried DC-9, which is almost exclusively German holidaymakers in the Yugoslav resort of Split. For the main actor in the area control center of Zagreb, the 28 -year-old G. Tasic, that September 10 was the third 12-hour day of the week. When the two aircraft approached the airspace of Zagreb, in this air traffic control center, the first fatal error occurred: One of the pilots asked Tasic, on the crowded radar screen showing if he could send the DC -9 in the " upper airspace ". Tasic, who had just spoken because of another thing into the microphone, the question referred incorrectly to another machine nearby and nodded impatiently. After that occurred, further communication misunderstandings, because the pilots had to deal simultaneously with other machines. The false climb the DC -9 was therefore not detected subsequently.

Both aircraft were now approaching the same level. As Tasic saw on his radar screen, this Trident showed him possibly in the wrong position. He concluded by calculation that the two machines would cross at a distance of about 250 meters. The last 20 seconds before the collision, he spoke with the DC-9 crew only in Serbo-Croat to stop their climb, so that the crew of the British aircraft received no indication of a collision problem. Then the two aircraft collided with the left outer wing of the DC-9 into cut into the cockpit of the Trident middle. The three pilots were killed there on the spot. The two planes crashed. The voice recorder recorded the last words of Inex - copilot D. Ivanuš: "We are done - Goodbye, goodbye". About 26 kilometers northeast of Zagreb bounced the two machines on the floor. No one survived the crash, 176 people were killed. A neighboring town remained almost unscathed.

Legal workup

During court proceedings, the main debt fell to Tasic, but tempered by the radar failure. In a later appeal process was also observed into perspective, that could cope with prison sentenced Tasic this situation made ​​impossible on your own.