Swiss concede 'partial blame' for jetliner collision.
Associated Press

A rescue worker walks near the tail of a crashed Bashkirian Airlines jetliner on July 2, 2002. (File Photo/AP)

UEBERLINGEN, Germany (AP) - Switzerland conceded Friday that its air traffic controllers were at least partly to blame for the collision of a Russian charter jet and a cargo plane over Germany, and admitted lapses in handling the aftermath of the crash, which killed 71 people.

At a memorial ceremony near the crash site in southern Germany, Swiss transport Minster Moritz Leuenberger sought to address Russian anger about early statements from Swiss air traffic control that appeared to blame the pilot of the Bashkirian Airlines plane, whose passengers included 45 school students headed for a Spanish beach vacation.

"The confrontation with the terrible notion of being part of the cause of the death of 71 people led us into helpless initial reactions, to confused and confusing information, to lapses," Leuenberger said, expressing condolences to the victims on behalf of Switzerland. "Not everyone of us found the right words."

A German lab on Friday finished identifying all the bodies with the use of DNA matching. Some bodies have already been sent home for burial, and a Russian plane was to leave from an airport near the crash site later Friday with the remainder.

Switzerland is ready to offer compensation to the victims and will cooperate fully in the German-led investigation into the July 1 crash, Leuenberger said at the ceremony attended by German officials and leaders from the Russian region where the plane was from.

"Your pain is our pain, your suffering is our suffering," he said. "Switzerland wants to see cause and responsibility brought to light. It will make every effort to help establish the truth."

Immediately after the crash, the Swiss said they had told the Russian pilot several times to descend and received only one reply. German investigators who listened to the black box recordings said the Russian pilot was receiving contradictory instructions from the on-board warning system, which told him to climb, and from the Swiss control tower, which said to descend.

The pilot appeared to have heeded the control tower's instructions to descend when it was repeated about 15 seconds after receiving the contradictory instructions.

However, had the pilot obeyed the cockpit warning instruction to climb, which was issued simultaneously with instructions to the DHL plane to descend, experts believe the crash would have been averted.

German investigators said Thursday that experts examining the wreckage found no evidence of technical problems in the planes so far, but will not close that part of the investigation for another two weeks.

Meanwhile, Russian officials said Swiss President Kaspar Villiger has canceled plans to attend a funeral ceremony Saturday for children killed in the collision after Russian authorities said they could not guarantee his security.

In Berlin, the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg — over which the crash occurred — held up Germany's ratification of a bilateral treaty that would renew Swiss responsibility for air traffic over parts of southern Germany.

The state's environment minister, Rudolf Koeberle, said confidence in Swiss air traffic control "has not exactly increased," and also cited southern German states' long-standing concern about noise from planes approaching Zurich airport.

The head of Germany's air traffic control, Dieter Kaden, said at the agency's annual conference on Friday that Germany and Switzerland have been cooperating in air control for 40 years and that it was "absurd" to think that the crash should change things.

"Everyone in the aviation industry must just try to learn from the tragedy," Kaden said.