Yesterday evening there was the premiere of this made-for-TV motion picture. I watched it with great zeal because this air disaster happened at the Swiss border, and a Swiss air traffic controller was in charge of the two aircrafts' fate.
The first thing I have to mention is the acting talent. Several roles are staffed by people who simply cannot act in a genuine and convincing way. The head of the ATC company tries to be convincing defender of his firm, but he can't convince us of his plan to hide the firm's mismanagement from the accident investigation board. His legal aide is much more effective in selling her point – and whom would the public believe?
The German fireman was also not really able to portray his state of being shocked when he hears that the father lost his whole family in the accident. The same happens when Balbayev, the husband and father of some killed in the disaster, discovers the corpse of a child. The sequence just does not feel sad or shocked enough.
On the other hand, the movie makers had access to a real air traffic control center and cockpits - kudos for this. The TCAS display looks like a real one, and it's at least no cheap computer simulation of it. There have been many more lavishly financed films that have done more "goofs" in aviation terms. But then, the pilots don't act like real pilots. They seem too calm. The air traffic controller too. If he had been that calm, he would have ignored the third aircraft that needed a landing assistance, knowing it would have enough fuel to circle Friedrichshafen for half an hour. Pilots are trained to take matters in their own hands if justified. If he would have been that calm, he would have set his priorities right and saved the 71 people.
Even it is a motion picture, it tries to dissociate itself from the reality. Everybody with some curiosity will google this aircraft disaster. Everybody can find out it was the collision of the Bashkirian Airlines 2937 and DHL 611 flights that happened near Überlingen on the 1st of July, 2002.
And everybody can read on Wikipedia that it was Skyguide that administered the airspace, and it was Vitaly Kaloyev who killed the air traffic controller, who in reality was Peter Nielsen. Why does this film try to shake off the connection to the real world and change all the characters' names? A fear from lawsuits? Everything can be read in the official accident report. Seemingly, the movie makers where a tad too shy in their attempt to paint the picture in its true colors.
In sum, this film could have been improved a lot by choosing better actors, and perhaps also a better director. The actors look and feel like the top actors Switzerland has - even Hollywood comedians give you a better "feel" for the atmosphere.
