Final week, a SWISS flight had an emergency touchdown, leaving a flight attendant hospitalized and in vital situation. There’s now a tragic replace, as that flight attendant has handed away. 2024 positive isn’t ending on a great be aware relating to aviation security…
SWISS A220 diverts to Graz as a consequence of smoke onboard
This incident occurred on Monday, December 23, 2024, and entails SWISS flight LX1885, scheduled to function from Bucharest, Romania (OTP), to Zurich, Switzerland (ZRH). The 866-mile flight was operated by a seven-year-old Airbus A220-300 with the license plate HB-JCD, and had 79 individuals onboard, together with 74 passengers and 5 crew members.
Slightly over an hour after takeoff, whereas cruising at 40,000 ft, there have been engine issues onboard, and smoke developed within the cockpit and cabin. It’s believed that this problem concerned the left hand engine, and that an oil leak induced the smoke, after which there was an uncontained engine failure.
The pilots made the choice to divert to Graz, Austria (GRZ). Inside 20 minutes of an emergency having been declared, the airplane landed on the airport on runway 34.
The scenario was so critical {that a} helicopter instantly positioned onto the runway, to take a flight attendant to an area hospital, the place he went into the intensive care unit. A complete of 17 individuals onboard ended up being hospitalized, together with each of the opposite flight attendants, plus the pilots. Three days later, all three flight attendants had been nonetheless within the hospital.
The next morning, a substitute plane was despatched to Graz. The preliminary plane from the incident continues to be on the bottom there, with the engine reportedly being changed.
SWISS flight attendant passes away in hospital
Sadly there’s a extremely unhappy replace. On Monday, December 30, 2024, SWISS confirmed that the flight attendant who was airlifted has misplaced his life within the hospital. This was revealed in social media posts, because the airline additionally greyed out the emblem on its numerous channels.
How horrible. My ideas are along with his household and mates, and will he relaxation in peace. It’s all the more severe to assume that this occurred proper across the holidays, which is a particular time for thus many households.
It’s believed that the flight attendant who misplaced his life had collapsed whereas looking for the supply of smoke, and defend others onboard. In these sorts of conditions, it’s regular for crew members to placed on protecting respiration gear. It’s not recognized if that wasn’t functioning correctly, or what. Clearly even in a scenario the place there’s smoke within the cabin, it shouldn’t result in fatalities.
The airline is now fastidiously investigating your complete occasion, together with the preliminary explanation for smoke, plus how the flight attendant misplaced his life.
Right here’s what SWISS CEO Jens Fehlinger needed to say:
“We’re devastated at our expensive colleague’s dying. His loss has left us all within the deepest shock and grief. Our ideas are along with his household, whose ache we can’t think about. I provide them my heartfelt condolences on behalf of all of us at SWISS. And we are going to, after all, be doing every part in our energy to assist and assist them at this extraordinarily tough time.”
In the meantime right here’s what SWISS COO Oliver Buchhofer needed to say:
“That is the saddest of days for us all. Shedding our colleague and fellow member of our SWISS group leaves me distraught and dismayed. However we stand with each other at this actually tough time; and we might be doing our utmost, along with the related authorities, to find out the causes concerned. We now have many questions, and we would like them answered. Our particular thanks go to the accountable events in Graz, notably the native emergency providers, who’ve given our passengers and our crew members such skilled assist and assist.”
Backside line
A SWISS flight attendant has misplaced his life, following an emergency touchdown on a December 23 flight from Bucharest to Zurich. It’s believed that an engine failure induced smoke within the cabin, and that the flight attendant ended up shedding consciousness and collapsing. Regardless of being airlifted to the hospital, he misplaced his life, passing away a number of days later. How unhappy…
