Planes Collide Over Southern Germany

July 1 -- A Russian passenger plane filled with children and teenagers collided with a cargo jet over Germany, killing up to 52 youths and 19 adults, officials said.

Reports varied, but Russia's Interfax news agency is reporting that the passenger jet — a Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 from Moscow bound for Barcelona, Spain — was carrying 57 passengers and 12 crew. Of the passengers, 52 were under the age of 18 and eight were under the age of 12.

They were headed to Spain for a vacation. They had been scheduled for fly out on Saturday, but arrived at the wrong airport and had to delay the trip.

The German cargo jet, a Boeing 757 operated by global shipping company DHL, had a crew of two and was en route from Bahrain to Brussels.

Rescuers said they do not expect to find survivors.

The two airliners collided over the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttember, sending flaming debris across a 25-mile swath of countryside. A school building, several buildings and a farm were set on fire by the accident.

The planes were believed to have been flying at about 36,000 feet, officials said.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg told The Associated Press the planes went down near the city of Sigmariegen, near Lake Constance. Witnesses reported seeing burning wreckage for several miles. The area of the crash is near where Austria, Switzerland and Germany intersect.

The planes hit the ground on a road close to the lake, the spokesman for the Baden-Wuerttemberg state government told Reuters.

One witness told German TV he saw two big balls of fire in the sky over southern Germany. Another said he saw bodies in the streets of his town.

Warning System?

One question for investigators is whether either plane was outfitted with an anti-collision system.

In the United States, all passenger jets must be outfitted with a Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System but cargo planes do not have the same requirement. When activated, the system will direct one pilot to move in one direction while it tells the pilot of the other plane to move in an opposite direction.