What was the weather ? -- What is your info about the suicide of the person responsible for the instruments.
For Dubrovnik, typical. For flying, not too great. I don't have my stuff here (I'm away from the office) but it was night, instrument meteorological conditions. It's doubtful that the aircrew had any way to tell their terrain clearance was insufficient until far too late.
In the mountains in IMC, you not only need to be vertically oriented with complete precision, but you need to be horizontally oriented, too. In terms of loss of situational awareness in IMC in mountains this accident is reminiscent of the AA flight that hit a mountaintop inbound to Cali, Colombia, a KAL flight that hit Nimitz Hill in Guam (although the wx wasn't terribly bad for this accident), and another air force accident where a C-130 hit rising terrain on climbout from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. (Interesting, although at the risk of stirring up the conspiracy fans: that plane was carrying a member of Clinton's secret service detail, and some of the protective detail's equipment).
What is your info about the suicide of the person responsible for the instruments.
You're referring to a Croatian air traffic controller. He did indeed kill himself; supposedly out of depression. I don't know if a feeling of responsibility for the crash was a factor (his actions were not a significant factor in the crash, but he might have felt bad about it anyway). In any event his statement had been taken by the investigators and they had no further interest in him. The Croatian ATC service didn't provide radar control at the time, IIRC, and it's hard to see how he could have done anything to help the crew. It's also hard to see how he could have known anything anybody would want to whack him for.
One factor that is seldom reported is that the Jeppesen chart was based on Croatian data, and did not report the minimum safe altitude correctly. The USAF was froth with a battle over whether to use such foreign-sourced charts at the time (the crash helped the USAF make a safe decision).
A couple of things many websites say are just out and out false. A flight attendant (the USAF version of a flight attendant) was fatally injured in the crash, but some sites claim she walked to a rescue chopper. (1) there was no chopper (it was at night and the weather was bad, rescuers came overland). (2) She was at death's door with multiple blunt force injuries and unable to stand or speak when they got to her and died enroute to hospital.
Also, there are those who hunt for a "missing" flight data recorder. No such animal exists; it's a red herring. At the time of this accident, military transport aircraft did not use these recorders which have been common on civilian jets for many years. The airplane was a military version of a Boeing 737, and wasn't fitted for cockpit or data recorders.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F