Überlingen, Germany
At least 71 people died this week when a Russian passenger jet and a cargo plane smashed into each other over southern Germany. Witnesses said a huge fireball lit up the night, and flaming wreckage rained down over a 20-mile-long swath in the hills surrounding Lake Constance, a popular vacation area on the border of Switzerland. The passenger jet, a Tupolev flown by Russian carrier Bashkirian Air, repeatedly ignored Swiss air traffic controllers’ orders to lower its altitude to avoid hitting a Boeing flown by DHL, an overnight mail service. By the time the Tupolev finally dove down, the Boeing was also trying to dive out of the way, and the two collided at 36,000 feet. Most of the dead were Muslim children from the Russian region of Bashkortostan, flying from Moscow to Barcelona for a UNESCO festival.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for February 21Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include consequences, secrets, and more
-
Crisis in Cuba: a ‘golden opportunity’ for Washington?Talking Point The Trump administration is applying the pressure, and with Latin America swinging to the right, Havana is becoming more ‘politically isolated’
-
5 thoroughly redacted cartoons about Pam Bondi protecting predatorsCartoons Artists take on the real victim, types of protection, and more
