Vitaly Kaloyev

Kaloyev remarried more than a decade after the air tragedy, in approximately 2012 or 2013, to a woman named Irina Dzarasova, who was an engineer at OAO Sevkavkazenergo. On 25 December 2018, Irina gave birth to their twins: a boy, Maxim, and girl, Sofia.

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.

In his native North Ossetia, Kaloyev was appointed Deputy Minister of Construction of the Republic. He held this post until 15 January 2016, when he retired, receiving the highest state award by the local government, the medal "To the Glory of Ossetia", on his 60th birthday. The medal was 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.

The Swiss government asked Kaloyev to repay the costs of his incarceration, about US$157,000. Kaloyev has refused to do so. When Kaloyev travelled to Germany to attend the 10th-anniversary memorial, he was detained by German authorities, saying that he was on a Swiss watch list. Russian consular authorities protested the detainment. The Germans released Kaloyev after Russian diplomats agreed to accompany him.

A petition was filed to the government of North Ossetia-Alania on 15 June 2015 to dismiss the murderer Kaloyev from his position of deputy minister because it damages relationships of Russia with other civilized countries. The petition was reproduced in a 2016 article published in the Journal of Defense Management.

On 23 August 2007, the court accepted the appeal, so that Kaloyev remained in prison. On 8 November 2007, Kaloyev was released from prison, as part of his parole.

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 2007, he was paroled by the court, but the prosecution appealed the decision.

Kaloyev held Peter Nielsen, 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.

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.

Kaloyev presented a document received from a law firm in Hamburg dated 11 November 2003. It was an agreement in which Skyguide offered him 60,000 Swiss francs for the death of his wife and 50,000 francs for the death of each of his two children. In return, Skyguide asked Kaloyev to decline any claims to the company. The document infuriated him; he decided to meet the company director Alan Rossier and Nielsen in person.

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.

Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloyev (Russian: Виталий Константинович Калоев ; Ossetian: Калоты Къостайы фырт Витали , born 15 January 1956) is a Russian former architect who was convicted of the premeditated killing of an air traffic controller after his family died aboard Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, which collided with DHL Flight 611 over Überlingen, Germany, on 1 July 2002.