Swiss crash plane safety system 'was off'

Wreckage rained from the sky

Air traffic controllers in Switzerland have admitted today that an automatic warning system in their operations room was not working when a Russian airliner and a cargo jet collided over southern Germany on Monday night.

It's not yet known whether the system could gave prevented the crash. But it is, at the very least, a sharp reminder of the risks of jumping to conclusions: the impression has rapidly arisen that the pilot of the Russian plane, carrying a party of children from Moscow to Barcelona, was to blame for what happened.

71 people died, and a large area around the town of Uberlingen is still sealed off as the search for bodies continues.

This morning's admission from the Swiss air-traffic control company, Skyguide, suggests that a great deal more work will have to be done before the cause of the disaster can be confirmed.

We spoke to Skyguide's spokesman, Roger Gabrielle, who said that the Short-Term Conflict Alert equipment was on standby for routine maintenance work on Monday night.

Yuri Karash, a Russian Aviation expert and pilot, told the World at One that the rapid assumption that the Russian pilot must have been to blame was typical of western attitudes to his country.

Click on the links above right to hear these interviews.